The Offner Family

The in's and out's...

2011-11-30T20:38:00.001-08:00

September:
Anniversary. Trip to Asheville. Best Friend's wedding. Favorite friends, food and restaurants with no kids. Grandpa Offner and Carol. Grand Canyon visit. Tinderbox, amazing. Young Life.Feeling crazy (in every sense of the word).
October:
Fall leaves. family time.Wyldlife clubs. Tailgating. Football games. Homecoming. Spur of the moment week long trip to Michigan. Plane travel with 2 littles, all by myself. Gram Jan. Gigi and Dude. Little Cario and JM. Moomer's. the Bay. runs in the rain. another wedding. Jon's bike race.
November:
Friendgiving 2011. Utah. Bryce Canyon. Pelicans in fields. Short hair cuts. Training for another 1/2 marathon.

Life is pretty full, really busy. I feel so incredibly blessed to have the life I have. I get to raise 2 amazingly beautiful and smart boys, that make me laugh and pull my hair out all in the same breathe. Jon and I get to see each more than not...He is a great dad that gets to work from home twice a week so I can be in the "office" which usually involves coffee and asking people to share their life with me. Grayson wakes up and asks me if today is a "Smiley day (they hang out with the Smiley's twice a week for a few hours while I work), a church day or a daddy day" It's adorable and precious. Pax says words. Sentences are just around the corner. But I will hold onto my baby as long as I can. (yes, he does have a mullet and no I don't want to cut it!)
As always I wait too long between posts and I have way too much to share. I know, people are on the
edge of their seats. So I am going to just post a few of the most recent pictures and say that the past few months have had moments where I wasn't sure I was going to be ok. Where I really questioned my sanity and my ability to maintain normalcy...but that season has passed and whatever it was that had me questioning my ability to do pretty much everything and anything is gone. And for that I am grateful. I love my sweet community, my family, the fact that I get to stress out over things that don't involve where my next meal is coming from or if my water is clean. I am grateful that my stresses at this moment are not over the health of my loved ones or fear of losing them. I will be grateful for the things that I get to stress about, because honestly even that is a gift.

We got to go to Bryce Canyon for the day over Thanksgiving Break. It was AMAZING.

Oh, and staying with 12 of our favorite friends in a sweet log cabin for 5 days. That was pretty awesome too.

The Friends at Bryce.

The Friends leaving 87 Henry. It was a great trip. Grayson misses our Utah house...or so he says. There was an air hockey table and a foosball table. So I bet he does miss it.

It was a great break. Sharing a room with the two boys, not so great. The other 16 hours of the day...definitely great.

Here's to the fact that I am pretty sure the next time I blog will be 2012. Maybe not. But I am all about being realistic.

My sweet little cherubs

2011-10-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

I have been sad that I have not been as good about taking pictures of my sweet little Pax like I did with Grayson. Man does life get busy and full...but the past week or two I have been much more intentional about making sure I had my camera. Glad I had it today on our little hike. I have about 100 more pictures but decided to only post 4.

Today we had a really great family day, it was much needed.

We got coffee at American Flyer, went on a little hike (missed the rain by minutes!), got lunch in Flagstaff (the boys actually behaved), went grocery shopping as a family, came home, took naps, roasted marshmallows in the backyard, took baths, popped popcorn and watched a movie in our jammies on the couch. I told Jon the only thing that could have made it better would have been an hour massage somehwere in there. But it was pretty much an amazing day. I am very grateful.

I adore my boys...all of them.

It's September.

2011-09-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I am real creative when it comes to blog titles as you can tell. I think my post title just two posts back was "it's April people". And now I inspire you with "It's September".
Well, it is. And it's cold and rainy and I love it. Right now you would think I live in the Northwest and it's awesome.
Life is great, and incredibly overwhelming all at the same time.
Grayson and Pax wake up at 5:30-5:45 pretty much every day. Need I say more?
Jon and I are figuring life out with a 3 and a 1 yr. old, two jobs, a small town...it's challenging. But good. I am slowly, and I must reiterate slowly, learning that life is full of changes and adjustments that must be made to maintain healthy relationships in every arena. The older I get the more I see that once I have figured out how to make it work, something is going to change...like my 3 yr. will turn 4. and have a whole new set of discipline issues. It's all maintenance. Marriage, friends, kids, work...somedays it's exhausting on every level. And other days it's invigorating. That's where I am at. Somewhere in the middle of exhausted and invigorated. Inspired and worn out. Grateful for the tears and frustration. Keeps it real.

Welcome back to my blog...maybe. Who knows.
Thanks Angela for noticing :) You are great.

Happy June.

2011-05-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

I am not even sure when I used to find time to blog. Seriously. It's not like much has changed other than the fact that my children are growing, but that would make sense. A 1 and 3 yr.old don't take kindly to me ignoring them while I type away on my computer. Although right now they are ignoring me. It might be that I fed them pancakes with as much "snow" (powdered sugar-that's a Glam-ism in case you were wondering!) and now they are happily playing and watching Super Why. (Grayson keeps asking me to be a Super Reader and turn into Super Pig...I refuse).

Oh wait, they are in my lap. The 2 minutes passed. HA! I am not even making this up right now, Grayson is climbing into my lap saying "hold me, so Pax won't get me!"

Well, if I sit here and let him twirl my hair he won't touch the keyboard. That's nice.

Summer camp started on Saturday, as did the 60 mile an hour winds. CRAZY. It has been sunny and warm but miserably windy. Like too windy to be outside. It's hard to be trapped inside when it's sunny and gorgeous out your window, but then you walk outside and get trash slammed into your face! .kikohgih9ihy8i yt98yt8 yt8 u0y98 yu8 u8u8u8u8u98u8u89u88u That was Grayson's contribution to the blog when I had to jump up and get Pax off the table. He wanted his brother's left over pancakes. My little man that doesn't even weigh 20lbs yet, is in the -3% and eats ALL the time. Why don't I have that metabolism!

So Jon's been at work a lot the past few weeks gearing up for camp, training interns, building rodeo rings, saying yes to anything and everything asked of him and doing it at 110%. He's pretty good at his job. He's pretty awesome and I am so grateful for him. I am ready for him to be home more, our children do push me to my limits and with him I feel balanced. Yay for summer and a consistent two days off. For that I am grateful!

This month has been one of exciting change for our family. It's been about a 9 month process, but one I was only aware of until a few months ago. This past year has been an amazing one. One where Jon and I have been affirmed in our call to Williams. We continue to thrive in our marriage, friendships and have a greater heart for this community specifically and the people that live life here. I have lots of good stories (I would just like to write that I currently have Grayson standing behind me in my chair twirling my hair and Pax and I have just read "Baby Bear Baby Bear What do you see" at least three times, he is now on the floor rolling around with the book). But all that to say, over the course of the year and through conversations and circumstances it became clear to Jon and I that the next step in our life would be for me to pursue the Young Life Area Director role in Williams that my dear friend Jen left this past January. I am officially done with Lost Canyon (where I had been part time Guest Group Communicator for the past three years) and started with the area today, June 1st. I am excited, intimidated but mainly just excited to walk with college kids and adults in this community as we live life with high school and middle school kids that may not have adults that care to show up. That's what we do. We show up. We care. We offer hope in what appears to be hopeless situations time and time again. I get to inspire and invite other people to join me in that. That's my job. I could not be more excited. As my friends and family, I look forward to keeping you updated on this new adventure in our lives. As we step into this community in a very intentional way I know I will have many more stories to share...If you have no idea what an Area Director does, or really what Young Life is...call me. Email me. I would love for the people in my life to know what we are signing up for!

My time limit is really up...they won't get off me at this point. I still have a bazillion things to share as I definitely haven't blogged in almost TWO months. But I will just post some pictures.

Mom came to visit last month and that was a highlight. Love when family gets to see where we live...So come visit us.

No really. Come.

It's April people...

2011-04-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's April 2nd. The past 2 months have FLOWN by. I have not had a chance to shower, let alone write a blog. Ok, I have showered a few times...let me be dramatic. I do it well, and so do my children apparently. They are partly, ok mainly the reason for absence from the blogosphere. Children, work, visitors and birthdays have taken up the past 8 weeks!

Since my last post Tim and Kara, Caroline, Lauren and Pam have all come to visit. Each deserves at least one post. But of course all my great pictures aren't on this computer and my quiet "alone" time is short...so forgive the brevity.

Moments from the past 8 weeks to remember: 1. Trip to Jerome/Sedona with Tim and Kara where we didn't fill up before we left and were on back roads praying we didn't run out of gas. This led to the detour in Prescott to get In'N'Out. Grayson asked for "alligator" which we quickly realized was Gatorade...on the same trip he heard us saying Sedona and from the backseat yells "Doughnuts, I love doughnuts!" 2. Coldest EVER week since we have lived here. Seriously, our pipes froze. 3. First hike to the Grand Canyon with NO babies in 3 years! 4. Making 4 different kinds of pancakes, playing "beans" and eating lots of chocolate chip cookies. 5. Playing with Caroline and Lauren, drinking lots of coffee, more hiking in the Grand Canyon without babies... 6. Pax's FIRST birthday! March 16th my little little man turned ONE. 7. Glam's birthday and photoshoot with very uncooperative children...but they still turned out great. Thanks to Adam's great skill.. 8. Season pass purchase to Bearizona. Oh yeah, we are regulars at the drive-thru wildlife park 5 min. from our house. It's a good time for all. 9. Did I mention that Tim, Kara, Caroline, Lauren AND Pam all came to visit in the past 8 weeks??? 10. It's been spring on and off so we have been playing in the backyard finally! And my chickens are laying eggs again. Yeah! 11. We got a day in Phoenix for a dear friends wedding and left the boys for over 12 hours! Good friends, 80 degree weather. It was heaven. 12. Pax is walking like it's his job. 13. Grayson asked me to help him clean up, por favor. I love it. He is already speaking in Spanglish. Thanks Dora. I know there are a million other funny things but of course I can't remember them to save my life. Here's to blogging more in April 2011! (My nephew Jackson turns SEVEN today...I was there at the hospital when he was born. My sister in law Marina is due April 24th, yay for my niece Sophia! I can't wait for her to be born. And Grayson turns 3. Busy month in the Offner family. AND my mom is coming to visit. This is in case I don't write again for another 2 months!)

My Life. The Life. Oh Life...

2011-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Pictures are always better than my ramblings. So you can look at these and then read if you want to!

Grayson has started doing the cheesy smile, EVERY time. I hate it but it makes me laugh.

Pax LOVES the spice cabinet, just like Grayson. It's funny to watch them do the same thing, yet independent of each other. Love them.

I got a medal. I've never gotten an award of any kind for anything athletic in my life. Yes, anyone that finished got the same medal but I feel like I earned it a little more than my little league trophy I got in first grade for just participating.

Whirlwind of a month. I know. I say that every time I have taken a hiatus from blogging. But it's true.

Summary: I ran my first half marathon and finished 6,120 something out of 19,500 something. So in the top third. Not bad for my first. Almost ran it in under 2 hrs. But I was going for finishing. Next time I will care more about my time. Maybe :) It was amazing. Loved the whole experience and will definitely do it again. Jon was incredible and took care of the boys, managed to find me on the course, make me cry at mile 8 by just being there and then was at the finish line. No easy task with 2 littles and the whole city blocked off due to the race. I did notice that for every "Go Dad!" sign there were about 50 "You Rock Mom" signs...so I am not the only one that got into running post baby for some alone time! It made me laugh.

Day after the race we dropped Grayson off with the Smiley's (his other favorite house) and headed to Northern California to move our dear friend Jen. Jon drove the U-haul and Pax and I rode with Jen in her car. It was a great trip. We got to Davis, bribed some neighbors to help us unload the U-Haul. We did get a day of fun. Andre came down and joined us for a day in San Francisco. It was amazing. I didn't realize how awesome SF was. I feel like no one told me because they knew I would want to move there. I know why everyone and their mom wants to live on the coast of CA. I do. We did all the touristy stuff that you do when you have 6 hours in the city. Rode the trolley, had clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl at Fisherman's Wharf, walked around Union Square, had Starbucks in Macy's (ok that isn't SF specific but we did), drove in on the Bay Bridge, drove out on the Golden Gate, walked into Anthropologie, H&M, Patagonia, North Face and touched a lot of clothes and things I wanted. That was fun.

We flew home on Thursday, drove back up from PHX and picked up Grayson. He was great for the Smiley's and saved all his emotions about us being gone for a meltdown at home. But he recovered quickly and was back to his hilarious/infuriating 2 1/2 yr. old antics.

I could (like every mom I am sure) write a book on the funny and enraging things that my children do. Right I could use some prayers for my sanity. Seriously. My strong willed child might be the end of me. And I am not dramatic at all :) I love him and I know we will get through the next few years, I just hope I don't loose my mind in the process!

It's Saturday and I should go clean the house...Tim and Kara come on Monday! We can't wait for them to come, it will be so fun to have them here. They haven't met Pax yet and haven't been here so there will be lots to do. (Grand Canyon, Sedona, Snowbowl, Flagstaff, Williams, Jerome...don't you all want to come visit us!) Yay for family.

Happy 2011

2011-01-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

I love the feeling of a fresh start. Have I ever really stuck with a "new year's resolution"? No. I like Monday's just as much as I like Jan 1st in terms of starting things. But 2010 marked the end of my 20's and I feel like more than just the new year has arrived.

Not that I will change much, because again let's be honest that is hard. But I do have hopes, dreams, aspirations for the next ten year's of my life. And I will start with this week...one day at a time.

New Year's Eve was great. A few friends, our house so the boys went to sleep, no T.V, just good conversation, games, lots of laughter, good wine and food and a sweet husband to kiss at midnight. I am overwhelmed with the sweetness of life. Overwhelmed with many other things as well but I am choosing to be grateful for the sweet things.

I have a million things in my head that I want to say about my goals and plans for the next 12 months. But here are just a few:

1) I WILL save money on groceries this year. Starting with meal planning (a new thing for me).

I already have the next 7 dinners planned. Yay me.

2) I will run a 1/2 marathon (in 2 weeks!) and then train for a sprint triathlon in July.

3) We will be debt free by August...here's to homemade lattes and eating at home!

4) I will get a babysitter so I can set office hours so that I can really engage with the boys when I am NOT working.

5) I will savor and be grateful for every funny and not so funny moment of Pax and Grayson because they are only this age once. It goes SO fast.

And I will not wish away the snow, I will be grateful that I live somewhere with seasons. Good reminder for my life. This too shall pass. The good, the bad, it doesn't last forever.

Here's to a memorable 2011...

Christmas Eve

2010-12-26T20:09:00.001-08:00

So I am not sure why I wrote about Christmas morning before Christmas Eve, but oh well.

Christmas Eve was hilarious. For 2 reasons:

1) Jon and I were making desserts for the Christmas dinner that we were invited to on Christmas Day and we managed to mess up at least one thing on each one (we were making 3).

2) All I wanted was one picture of the boys dressed up in their holiday attire before church, but it didn't work.

I didn't get any pictures of our desserts (they all ended up being fine, but Jon and I have decided we are the worst bakers ever...)

But here are the pictures of the boys:

Ok, this is one of the best ones. Although Pax is not wearing his cute hat. And there is a Target bag in the picture and I wanted one by the tree. But we don't always get what we want do we?

Grayson stuffing his face with popcorn left over from our Target run earlier that afternoon. (Jon has Grayson trained to ask for a slushie and popcorn as soon as we walk into the store).

This is the most awesome Grayson face. I see it way too much.

However, this face I love. And I do see it quite a lot, maybe even more than the previous face.

This is an ADORABLE picture that I love. However, it is actually Jon telling Grayson that if he doesn't sit still and listen to mommy that he will get a spanking...Hilarious.

And here is my little Pax. In his cute outfit, with the hat and all.

We did read the nativity story at the dinner table with Grayson and Pax and talked about it being Jesus' birthday. It was very fun to talk about with Grayson and to hear him ask questions about baby Jesus. It's very exciting to watch a person learn...

Christmas in Williams

2010-12-26T19:46:00.001-08:00

So it's been fun, good, restful, a little (lot) sad to not be with extended family this holiday season. This is the first Christmas in 6 years that we have not travelled back East, hence our first Christmas morning in Williams. If you grew up in Williams you would know that it is NORMAL and a great town tradition for the firefighters to drive the fire engine around town, sirens and lights blaring, giving out candy for HOURS on Christmas morning.

But if you are the Offners, and have never spent Christmas morning in Williams you would assume that there has been some major catastrophe on 1-40 or in town somewhere due to all the sirens going non stop for hours. After about 2 hours of the sirens and me being sad for the families of the victims and the first responders dealing with something tragic on Christmas morning, Jon hops in the truck to see what's going on (yes, mom you would have been proud). He comes back 3 minutes later and tells me that he found out what was happening...Santa on the fire engine throwing candy to children. So then we take Grayson outside to see Santa on the fire truck, but to no avail. They never came down our street. So no proof of Santa on this blog. Sorry.

We did have a great Christmas with our little family of four. Grayson and Pax were funny all morning and it was fun to start our own traditions. I didn't get many pictures of the morning...but here are a few:

Pax on Grayson's trampoline. Don't worry, we are right there to catch him head diving off.

Grayson and Jon outside waiting for the fire truck that never came down our street. (Jon looks like a catalogue model in this picture, I love it).

Grayson and Handy Manny...

Grayson holding up Toy Story 3 (we've only watched it 3 times already).

Here's to 2011. Very excited about the upcoming year!

Pax is 9 months old...

2010-12-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

It's always a milestone when they've been on the outside as long as they were on the inside...It goes by so fast! I love this little man.

Thirty...

2010-12-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

I turned 30 on Sunday. It was awesome. Jon took me out to an AMAZING dinner, and then TOTALLY surprised me with a party at the house afterwards. All our friends were there, dressed up all fancy, candles lit, a song list made just for the occasion...and did I mention that I was completely surprised. It was by far one of the greatest birthdays. Thank you husband for knowing me so well.

Kara and Tim sent us these ADORABLE matching sweaters. I am in love with making them match. It's real cute. and so are they. Love these boys.

Sweet little Pax was not a big fan of Santa. I LOVE that face.

He loves me more than Santa. That's good.

It is as good as it sounds...

2010-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

I love pictures.

I love mail.

I love pictures in the mail.

Which is why I am so excited about us finally sending out a real CHRISTMAS card!

Shutterfly loves me and I love them (check out their Christmas gift to bloggers this year).

I can't decide which awesome card I am going to use.

I go back and forth between simple:

And not so simple:

We'll see...all the options are pretty much awesome.

Since we moved to Arizona almost 6 years ago I have used Shutterfly to keep friends and family updated on our new house, our new puppy, our new babies...

I have used it for countless gift ideas for parents and grandparents, myself!

I printed Grayson's whole first year in one album and he LOVES looking at himself, I mean the album. This is hands down one of my most favorite items that I have made using Shutterfly. I was able to upload pictures over the course of his first year as I got them and just kept updating the album as I had time. By the time his first birthday rolled around the album was almost done. It was so easy and so great to have it all in one place. I also LOVED Pax's birth announcement as well. Easy and budget friendly. Both good things in my world.

I also love the idea of a family specific calendar (like the awesome one we got from Matt and Marina last year!) and I would LOVE to order some canvas pictures to decorate the boys room or to decorate Jon's office (that is definitely on my list of things to do, not Jon's).

I will be happy just to get our Christmas cards out this year before Dec. 25th so we will wait see about the other stuff.

Let's see...

2010-11-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

Since my last entry:

We worked. A lot.

We went home to North Carolina for TWO weeks.

We saw Friends. Dear Friends.

We saw Family...but missed a few.

Pax met lots of new faces.

Grayson fell in love with hockey-Pop Jay took us to a Hurricanes game.

All the parents fed us very well. I mean good food people.

We spent an amazing weekend at an amazing lakehouse with amazing friends.

We travelled across the country twice with 2 under 2. (did you know baby socks count as shoes and they asked me to remove Pax's puppy dog socks to walk through security).

The security guard called our double BOB the armada of strollers.

We rocked the Element all over NC thanks to the Bucklads.

We got to go trick or treating with the cousins. Grayson as a tiger and Pax as Winnie the Pooh.

We had a Halloween Party in the backyard with Glam.

We had a Barlow Family Reunion. Great-Grandma, Gigi, Dude, Emily, Phil, Jordan, Kiersten, Baby James, Pop Jay, Gram Jan, Uncle Jon Mike. and us. oh, and Pax the dog.

We got to meet Bambino Offner-yes, Matt and Marina are prego!

Good times with Glam and Jess, Chris and the cousins-Jackson, Sabannah (as Grayson still says) and Madelyn.

Good food and love at Cherry and Carol's.

Jon went hiking in the woods with good friends.

I caught up with old friends from Lurecrest.

Jon got a few blessed hours in Boone and I got a few in Asheville. Not enough for sure...

We ate a lot of Chik Fil A.

I actually got in a few runs on vacation! (first time in my life I "exercised" on vacation).

We all got sinus infections upon the return home.

So we spent the first two weeks of November in the house. Sick.

Adam's been living with us while helping Jon work on the ropes course at camp.

We've laughed a lot at Grayson's antics (he asked the other day where my wee-wee was and we had a very hard conversation of me explaining that mommies don't have wee-wee's. We had to change the topic).

We also want to pull our hair out at the level of defiance and sass that comes out of his mouth. It's really mind blowing (this is Grayson of course).

Pax turned 8 months old on Nov. 16th.

I cleaned out my refrigerator.

I am training for a 1/2 marathon in January.

We finally officially joined a church.

We finally officially are on Williams YL Committee.

We rented Toy Story 3 and both cried.

Pax has slept over 8 hours in his own bed TWICE now. Don't judge me.

I am 3 pounds away from my pre-Grayson weight and feeling pretty good.

There is lots more that I did not mention. Not because it wasn't worth mentioning but because my time to write is limited as always.

We continue to thrive in Williams. We love our little community, our house, our neighbors and our jobs. We definitely miss our family and friends tremendously, that is a given. And Asheville is still my most favorite place on earth. (Paris is a close second). But I will stop at risk of being repetitive.

I will do a separate entry with a few choice pictures from the past 2 months.

I did it...

2010-09-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

He's just that cute.

Yep. We went to the County Fair. It was awesome.

(Pictures are completely random and have nothing to do with post. Other than they are recent).

I ran my first race today. And I didn't die. It was a 10k and I didn't walk and did it in under 1 hr. and 10 min-my two goals. I will be honest, I am pretty proud of myself! And it was actually FUN. My dear friend Shea ran with me, it was in the woods of Northern Arizona, the weather was amazing...I would do it again.

The orange car did die today. 11 years and all we have had to replace is the alternator, so she is probably due for major maintenance. Sadly she ain't worth much so we will see if we get to be a one car family for awhile. Jon had to come get me in Flagstaff (he stayed home with the boys so I could run) and when we got home Grayson told me that he and daddy had to come rescue me. It was real stinking cute. I love that little man so much.

All three of them. A lot.

I can't even think of a title...

2010-08-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

So life is happening and I am overwhelmed. Not in a bad way, just excessively tired, a little stressed (ok a lot) about getting my job done (the one that pays) mix into that children, a house and a husband and it feels like a lot. But it is just a season.

I have lots of things to write about, even more pictures to post and no time. That feels lame. But here is my attempt.

We went hiking last week with 5 of the summer long interns. It was awesome. It was our first real family hike. Well that's not true, we did hike to the top of Bill Williams earlier this summer with Mike, but hiking Humphries with both boys felt like an accomplishment. It's probably the last time we will put Grayson in the backpack too, that kids is putting on the lbs and no body wants to day hike carrying that much weight!

Jon carried Grayson, I carried Pax and we made it all the way to the saddle, about a mile from the summit. The wind was intense and the boys had been in the packs for too long, so I took a long break with them at the saddle (with Sarah) and the rest of the group pushed to the top and came right back to us, well, an hour later. But Grayson loved being out of the pack so it was a good call. It was a very fun hike and I think we got some fun pictures. I am all about the photo opportunities.

Jon turned 30 on Monday. That was exciting. And as I am typing this I am realizing that I hardly took any pictures of any of the things we did to celebrate him. I love birthdays and wanted this one to be special. So I asked him a few months ago what his dream birthday would look like. He said a big breakfast, a day long hike with great friends and dinner at Flag Brew. So he planned it and he did it. Being a nursing mom I was not able to participate in the chosen hike, but did get to meet up for dinner with all our friends and it was real fun. I have to say that I am pretty excited about the gift I got him. He got a tattoo! He had been talking about wanting something on his wedding ring finger for awhile and I decided to get him an appointment! He actually got it today and it looks awesome. I feel like we really solidified our marriage today (I am being sarcastic of course, but it is pretty permanent!) I will have to get a picture of it to post. But I really like it. Pretty sure he does too!

Then Pax turned 5 months old on Monday...he is eating rice cereal and bananas and is so ready for more. He loves to eat and it's real cute. He has definitely discovered his voice and screams or shrieks out of happiness. It's REAL loud, especially at 6 am

And then there is our garden. Love it. I don't love that it is August and I still don't have a ripe tomato but I love how huge the sunflowers are and our squash, zucchini, green beans, basil are all doing great. It's been a fun experiment to see what grows well in our garden and what doesn't.

Ok I am real tired and will go ahead and just post the pictures. They are more fun to look anyway.

NOTE: I wrote this um...a MONTH ago. I obviously haven't had much down time. More recent news in the next blog. With more pictures. Just ready to be done with this post....typos and all.

Little Family Vaycay...

2010-08-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

So we escaped the madness of YL camping for a full three days, in AUGUST. Imagine that.

Our friends, Jen and John Byard, happen to live in the sweet town of San Diego. They also happened to be going on a family camping trip and offered us a free place to stay while they were gone! So we said yes, Jon was able to take an extra day off with his "weekend" and we had ourselves a little trip to San Diego.

We somehow convinced our friend Kate that she wanted to ride 9 hours in the back of our truck with two car seats that contained a 2 yr. old and 4 month old and I didn't even have to bribe her!

The boys actually were great in the car both there and back. There is much more stopping involved and the stops are longer when you have 2 under 2, but it's all about the journey right?

We had a great place to stay (seriously Jen, your house is the marriage of Anthropologie and Pottery Barn), we had great recommendations of places to eat and the weather could not have been more amazing. 75 and sunny everyday.

Our days revolved around where we were eating next (which Jon loved), where the nearest Starbucks was (for Kate and I) and playgrounds (for Grayson).

We would eat, get some coffee and go to the next playground by the water.

And that is what we did. Oh, and we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Strong decision.

I also took a million pictures, so I will just let those tell the rest of the story:

Headed out of Williams @ 5:00pm on Monday. Arrival time: 1:00 am on Tuesday.

Grayson would ask for my sunglasses anytime the sun got in his eyes.

Our hosts graciously left us this great book. We used it. A lot.

Us driving away from our first lunch recommendation, Bahia Don Bravo. Great shrimp/lobster tacos. And yes, that is Starbucks.

Grayson pointing at the water, and the seals. You just can't see them.

Grayson shivering a little bit from the chilly Pacific water. He was real funny.

Joff and his boys. First time in the Pacific for all.

Family Portrait in La Jolla (it's ok, you can say la HOLLA, or La Hoya, we know what you mean)

It's that beautiful. Yep. For real.

Just one of our many park excursions...all of them waterside.

He really would ask for my glasses all the time. It was hilarious.

Second food recommendation of the trip, Port Pizza. And yes it was that good, and yes, we did run into one of the five people we know in San Diego while we where there (who might have also been the one to recommend it. Thanks AJ).

We were in Solana Beach enjoying our pizza and right around the corner was a public beach access (complete with playground and all). It was beautiful, almost sunset and we couldn't resist.

Oh the fam.

I kept singing "the hills are alive, with the sound of music" for some reason. It's all I know to sing when things are pretty, and quote French Kiss. "oh, beautiful, wish you were here" in that cute Meg Ryan voice...

Pax and Grayson let us sleep in until NINE am one morning (ok, Grayson still woke up at 6:15 but the Byards own a Dora DVD and that kept Grayson out of room all morning). That was worth the drive right there.

Then there was the day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. It was awesome.

Pax loved it.

I loved watching Jon push our ginormous stroller through the crowds. In one afternoon Kate and I spotted 7 double BOB's. (and 8 single ones, but we weren't counting or anything). I was with my people.

Grayson and Kate in the map. (we referenced Friends and Dora A LOT that day).

A little family portrait action with giraffes. They were one of the last animals we saw...we almost didn't go see them but then read that their hearts weigh about 22 pounds. Not sure why that made us go but it did.

Here we are at our post zoo meal at the Burger Lounge. It's a chain in SD (maybe CA but I don't know) but it is stinking good. Grass fed beef, locally bought veggies...all real fresh and real good. Grayson was just happy to be eating french fries, again...

The Byards also had a fun kitchen set for their boys that Grayson LOVED. This is him drinking his coffee on the couch. He kept pointing at my cup saying "mommy cobby" then his "grayson cobby" (his f's sound like b's..it's pretty cute).

This is Grayson and Kate at our favorite breakfast place (so we ate there 2 out of 3 mornings which hands down makes it my favorite place!) It felt like West Asheville and the food was AMAZING. Cardamom's Bakery and Cafe. A must if you visit. Thanks Jen for the recommendation.

Here we are Day 3 (departure day) at Coronado Beach. The famous Hotel Del Coronado is off to the right...we drove for about 45 min. from Point Loma (traffic was not great) to get over here so that I could pretty much just look at the beach and smell the air. Jon was maybe a little frustrated. But he was still smiling.

So then we found a playground.

But it was still pretty awesome. Water, grass and sand (and playground). What more do you need. (oh, coffee). Please note the Coronado Bridge in the background. I love bridges.

After the playground we headed back to the Byard's place to get our stuff, to find our friends had come home a day early from their camping trip (they have 3 boys and had been gone since Sunday, I was thoroughly impressed!) So we at least got to hug them and say thank you. We then grabbed early dinner at one of their other "must eat" places, Luigi's (?) Pizzeria. Anyway, regardless of what it was called it was awesome. I didn't get a picture because we might have had a showdown between Jon and Grayson that lasted for about 20 min. in the car. Jon won but it was not the best way to start our 9 hour car ride home.

But make it home we did. It was a surprisingly restful trip for as fast and "busy" as it was.

I have to say I love the city, but I am surprisingly in love with Williams. It helps tremendously that the weather has been awesome since we got home.

That's about all for now.

Pax is "eating" now so watch out for that exciting post complete with pictures and all. I know you can' wait.

Pax is 4 months old!

2010-07-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

Grayson just being awesome.

Pax also just being awesome.

Again, more awesomeness.

And really, there are just no words for how awesome this is.

Oh, I got my hair cut. I really like it.

I feel old. I mean not really, but a little. Today I definitely had a conversation with a friend where I said, "I know what's in style but watching what the interns wear". Hmmm. I could blame it on the fact that I live in Williams, or that I turn 30 this year. We will go with Williams.

Anyway, onto more important things like the two beautiful children that take up my days. Let's talk about them and how cute they are.

Pax is already 4 months old and Grayson is 2 going on 16. It's awesome. I love them. They do really cute things all day that make me laugh. Laughing is good, it's keeps me sane for the times when they don't make me laugh (which let's be honest, the laughing and the not laughing times are about split even right now). Grayson LOVES his little brother, and wants to be on him all the time. There is no safe place, Grayson has managed to figure out how to climb onto the bed using the co-sleeper crib that Pax sleeps in. Let's just say Grayson's nap time is a welcome time of rest for me as well as Pax.

I am tired, Jon is at work and the boys are sleeping so I might just do the same BUT not before I leave you with these two Jon Offner quotes (Jon makes me laugh a lot, even more than the boys sometimes): in reference to us cleaning out our house to have a yard sale the other day, "It feels like an enema for our house, I like it". Pretty sure Jon's never experienced an enema, but either way it was real funny. Another recent favorite: Jon talking to Pax "Dude, if I cried every time I farted I would be dehydrated." (this was a very serious conversation by the way).

Makes me laugh every time.

Oh, AND if you read this blog you most likely would love my friend Jen's blog www.mythreesonsdesigns.blogspot.com. If you go visit it before Wednesday night and post a comment you could win one of her really awesome handmade totes. And if you mention my name and my post I get to enter again. But really I want you to win...

And you should probably check out my friend Robin too, cause she's awesome and sells really cool handmade stuff @www.etsy.com/shop/lemonswithapea

I have real crafty friends. Which makes me crafty by association. Ok, not really but we can pretend.

My new kick

2010-07-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

Ignorance is bliss.

True Statement. Especially if you are a thinker, analyzer, fixer or a person that can't hear or see something without challenging it or being moved by it. Because once you know or feel compelled to find out more you are then a responsible party.

I have opinions. Pretty strong ones actually, but I am also a peace maker/keeper (or afraid of confrontation if you want to call it what it is most of the time) and therefore keep a lot of these opinions and feelings to myself. All that to say that I have been on this documentary kick the past few weeks and have watched the following:

Capitalism: A Love Story

Food, INC

King Corn

Who Killed the Electric Car

No Impact Man: The Documentary

Walmart : The High Cost of Low Price

Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America's Number One Threat

Now, I know that you can't believe everything you hear, read, are told by friends, books, the news, and the media in general. Yes, question it all for heaven's sake. However, even if half of what these different films propose to be true IS actually true, then we have some serious changes to make as a country and communities. That's all.

And change is good. I want change.

The change that they are asking for, in my opinion, is good. And truth be told we are always moving towards change as a country, as families, as individuals. The question is not "Will things be different in 5 or 10 years?" the question is "How much will I shape the next 5 to 10 years by my actions and decisions?" Am I going to be an active or passive participant? This principle I am quickly learning applies to pretty much everything from parenting to marriage, to civic duty. Life happens whether you are on board or not...But I digress.

I am pretty sure corporate America has never been about the broken, the destitute, the poor, the less fortunate. And I am pretty sure that our capitalistic (individualistic) society in and of itself is not about community and loving our neighbors as ourselves, in fact I would be willing to say the heart of it goes against what I want my life to be about, that is caring for other people, especially the ones that can't do it themselves. But that's just me.

I do take it all with a grain of salt and I am fully aware of the privileged life I lead that allows me to sit here on my computer in my living room and BLOG of all things about what's wrong with our country.

The best/worst part is it's all connected so there is no one answer and no one reason why we (and by we I mean America at large) are depressed/stressed/overweight/overmedicated and destroying our environment and communities and not blinking an eye. I could go on, but I won't.

There is a lot in my head and to be honest I LOVE to talk in circles. I loved seminars in college where we would sit and talk post modern feminist art theory for three hours. Seriously. I mean who gives a crap, right? But it is stimulating...so to talk about stuff that DOES matter outside of the collegiate realm, bring it. However, on my blog that is really just for family that we live far away from I will stay off the soapbox. For now.

But we are building a greenhouse and my front yard will be full of vegetables next year. Actions always speak louder than words, right?

And do be afraid to watch any of the films I listed. They will either make you feel angry, defensive, very sad, helpless, overwhelmed and motivated to change at least one thing, if not a 100 things in your life. And hopefully if you do watch them it will be a little bit of all of the above.

Love,

P.S. Netflix Instant Play is to thank for the plethora of films that I have recently watched. I have watched some other great movies that aren't quite as controversial or political. Check 'em out if you have time (and don't judge me if you are offended...)

Ira & Abby (seriously loved this one, cute, quirky romantic comedy)

180 South (ok, a little political but great soundtrack and GORGEOUS cinematography)

Blindsight (very interesting)

The Answer Man (cute, quirky romantic comedy as well, and it has Lauren Graham in it. And she's pretty much adorable even if she does play the same character in everything she does. Still cute.)

And next post I will put up pictures of the boys and no opinions. Promise. Maybe.

Raindone-ARE YOU?????

2010-07-10T12:25:00.001-07:00

Raindone (prounced like dome, but with an "n")=Rainbow.

ARE YOU???=Grayson yelling (in a cute way) at the top of his lungs asking the rainbow where it had gone.

Yesterday on our way home from camp there were two incredible rainbows over Williams. It was so amazing that I had to go home and get my camera.

The photos don't do it justice but it was beautiful.

My happy happy baby. Almost 4 months old.

Rainbow over the Methodist church that is a block up from our house.

Rainbow at the entrance to camp (LOVE the new sign).

I of course had to get Grayson out while I was taking pictures. Back of the truck seemed safe.

Here he is telling me about the "raindone".

Happy Independence Day.

2010-07-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. Jon didn't have to work until the afternoon so we went on a hike this morning with the boys (of course), Katie and Christina. Then we went straight to camp for the camp 4th of July Parade which was amazing. Camp this week is Capernaum Camp, which is Young Life's ministry to kids with disabilities. They put on a great Parade around camp. It was so fun to see them having so much fun. Then we came home to put both boys down for a nap and ordered lunch to go from my favorite lunch place, Red Raven. We sat in our beautiful backyard (thank you Jon Offner) and enjoyed lunch without babies. Joff went to work, I got to take a little nap with the boys and then we headed down to save our seats at the parade. You have to show up early to these things in a small town. That's a good day.

Well, I would grab my camera, take awesome pictures to only later realize I didn't have my memory card in it. Lame. Oh well, I think friends took some good pictures of the AWESOME July 4th parade we had in Williams this evening. It was quite the affair with a million tractors (that Grayson loved), fire trucks and of course trucks/floats/stenciled signs for the 1,800 candidates that are running for the Justice of the Peace here in Willytown (this election is kind of a big deal apparently, there really are like 10 people running and we know half of them). But Grayson was adorable and we had fun being locals. Then we had a great cook out with friends. I call that a successful day. (sans pictures and Jon had to work but oh well).

I did however get some cute pictures yesterday when we went down to the tractor show they set up a block from our house. Grayson was in tractor heaven. Aunt Dee (or Katie) went with us, it's always nice to have an extra set of hands, not to mention a friend :)

So as Grayson is sitting on this yellow Agricat, he is saying (in earshot of the owners) "no John Deere" over and over. It was real funny.

Aunt Dee and Grayson in front of a 1960 John Deere. He was a big fan of the John Deere's. I think because they are green...

Me and the boys walking downtown (this was a block from our house).

These are for mom, who asked for a picture of the double BOB. I took these in our driveway. We were on our way to the park to go down the slides.

Grayson refused to smile for me.

It goes by so fast

2010-07-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

My sweet little man.

He is SO smiley all the time.

Grayson "smiling" for the camera.

My sweet friend Mel (roommate from college!) was our visiting family in AZ and came by for a few hours. It was SO great to see her!

And Grayson rocking his hiking boots and no shorts. I couldn't help but take a picture.

I can't believe it is already July 2nd. I hate how fast summer goes. Life is good at the Offner homestead, camp is busy, we have great friends to visit with, the garden is growing, the chickens aren't on strike any more, the rain season has begun and I have a tan. Life is good.

The boys develop more and more personality and I love it (most days). Grayson is quite the two year old with his moments of sweetness and craziness and Pax is getting to the stage where he is awake more than he is asleep during the day, which is nice and not so nice at the same time.

I remember from Grayson that once I felt like I had things "under control" he would change his routine and learn something new and my life would feel hectic again. That's how it feels right now with Pax. He's getting older, more alert and needs more attention. And I am fine with that, I just have to adjust.

This weekend is a crazy weekend in Williams. Yep, 4th of July is kind of a big deal in "Main Street America" towns like ours. The "traffic" is already driving me crazy. I make myself laugh at how irritated I get when there are more than 4 cars at the stop sign (that's right, stop sign because we have no stop lights in Williams), or when I have to wait in line at the gas station! I mean who are all these people and why are they in my town. Living in a small town like Williams is definitely hard at times so when the perks are taken away (ie not having to sit in traffic or in line anywhere) it can get rough. Fortunately this is a rare circumstance and I have learned to deal (sort of).

Grayson is already very excited about the parade tomorrow as he still had fond memories of the Memorial Day parade where he got candy and a Smokey the Bear tattoo that he wore on his hand for days (he wouldn't let me wash it off). When talking about the parade all he says is "tat tat parade", which translates as " I got this sweet tattoo at the parade and I am really excited about the next one". I wish you could hear how excited he is when he chants "tat tat parade" over and over, but I guess you will just have to trust me that it's the cutest thing you have ever heard.

Well Pax is crying now for some attention and Grayson will most likely wake up in about 3-5 minutes, so it appears that is all for now!

A thousand words...

2010-06-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Pax and Jon. Father's Day 2010.

Flagstaff going up in flames. Ok, not really...but that is the plume of smoke from the now 10,000 acre fire that is burning in between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. It's not good. The fire right now is not contained and they have over 500 firefighters working on it. I think they will be able to save the houses that are threatened but gorgeous forest is being destroyed because someone didn't put out their campfire properly. THIRD fire in a week.

Grayson sitting by himself at one of our favorite new restaurants. (He is watching the trains that go by almost every 10 min).

Grayson in our backyard playing in his new favorite toy.

Grayson and Jon on the top of the Peaks.

Pax in his bear suit on the chair lift. He wasn't too happy as I couldn't really get up and move.

Grayson taking his own picture. We have a whole series of self portraits.

Katie and Mamy hanging out at the bottom. It was a gorgeous day at the Snowbowl.

Grayson asked for my sunglasses.

Here we are as a family at the top of the chairlift. The view is amazing from up there (you could see all three fires).

Me and the boys before we went up to the top...

My precious little man. He is so sweet. I love love love sleeping babies.

Grayson and his buddy Luke, We have playdates every Friday. They love the wagon. I can pull the two of them up to the park and wear Pax. Not sure I am cut out for three :)

The other night we had our friends over for dinner. They have a two year old as well named Robert. Robert is about 6 months older but they love to play together. Anyway, we had dinner outside and the boys were at the water/sand table. They were happy for quite a while...until they both appear around the corner looking like the above picture. Grayson had sand in his mouth, ears, hair. We had to hose them off in the tub. Sad I didn't get a picture of Robert as well.

They say it all.

Well they say a lot.

It's summer for sure...

2010-06-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is Grayson and Jon summer 2008.

This is Pax and Jon summer 2010.

Happy Father's Day Joff. The more I get to know you the more I fall in love, with you and our children. So glad we get to do life together.

This is Grayson and two of his buddies, Ezra and Bryce. Sadly they were only here for three weeks. On to a new set of friends. Grayson will be a pro at meeting people and saying goodbye by the end of the summer.

This is our family portrait summer 2008.

This is our family portrait summer 2010.

Yay for family portraits. I know, our reds clash and Pax isn't looking. But we are together.

This is Grayson at three months old.

This is Pax at 3 months old.

Pax Thompson: our little three month old. EDIBLE!

Brothers in their matching Carrhart's from Uncle Jeff and Aunt Heather. Could their coloring be any different? Love it.

Today is Father's Day. Pax turned THREE months old this week and Grayson tells me things like "no poo-poo mom" or yesterday in the car as he is crying about who knows what I ask him what trains say. Well, he was too upset to answer so I say " Do they say woo-woo?" and in his sad crying voice he says, "No woo-woo mom", it was hilarious. Life is good. (And for the record I know trains don't "say" anything, but sometimes you start talking like a two yr. old and don't even know it).

Jon is working this morning (Sunday and Father's Day) which is part of the job. There are very few downsides to his job, the sometimes inconvenient schedule being one of them. But we, and by we I mean I, made him chocolate chip scones and coffee before he ran out the door. I couldn't get Grayson to say Happy Father's Day, but maybe next year.

Yesterday we had one of those (ok several) moments where you just have to laugh at what's happening to you. We rode the chairlift at the Snowbowl yesterday with the interns and it was SO beauitful and SO worth the 30 min. ride to the top with a screaming baby and a 2 year old crying "home, home, home". It was only that dramatic for like 5 minutes of the ride up but it felt much longer as we were trapped on the chairlift with our not happy children. We try so hard to do things with the kids and we are the only ones to blame for the madness that ensues. Then we tried to get pizza with everyone afterwards and it turned into Jon dealing with Grayson demanding pizza and not "understanding" the whole wait process. And me walking around with Pax because he cried anytime I sat down (not his normal behavior) which then turned into Amy holding Pax and the restaurant was so crowded...we quickly ate and left when both kids started screaming. Pax was just crying and Grayson was yelling "down" loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear. It was awesome. (I hopefully have some great pictures but don't have my card reader at home so I can't upload them).

So sometimes you just have to laugh. And I would rather have funny stories to tell then to be "safe" in my house where no will judge me, the girl with her crying, out of control babies. Although with Grayson I feel like I could stay at home and still have ridiculous stories. He doesn't stop. Ever. Except to sleep for a few precious hours.

Grayson just asked me for coffee. One of my favorite morning rituals is him insisting on helping me make my coffee. He pulls up his chair and helps do everything. Yes it does take about 5 min. longer than normal and sometimes he spills beans and makes a general mess but he loves it. And I love him saying "mommy cawbee" (because that is what it sounds like).

The stupid wind is back. I love our weather most of the time, but not as much this summer.

Happy Father's Day to all the Father's in my life. Especially mine. I am forever indebted to you for the life you have given me. Thank you for all the sacrifices made so that I could be the woman, wife and mom that I am today.

So much to say, so little time...

2010-06-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

So at camp every week there is thing called "tableau", one day I will go into all the detail, but for sake of brevity...the theme is "America Rocks". We brought up the radio flyer wagon for Grayson to ride in, wearing his carrharts. American, right? And here he is "working" on it. He's real cute.

Sweet Baby Pax.

He seriously smiles like this all the time.

I want to eat him.

The past month (6 weeks really), has been CRAZY and FUN but also exhausting at the same time. Everytime I have tried to sit down to post something new I have been interrupted by cute and/or crying children, and I have a little bit of that everyday. Pax is pretty much just cute and sweet all the time. He smiles at anyone that gives him eye contact. He just lights up and then coos and smiles with his whole body. He is ADORABLE. Grayson is well, two. And hilarious. And exhausting. I can't leave him alone for two seconds in the same room as Pax...okay maybe two seconds but no more. I thought I had found one safe place, the middle of our bed. Our bed is up high and Grayson can't get on it by himself yet. So I put Pax on the middle of the bed and went into Grayson's room for a few minutes. It wasn't two minutes before I heard Pax's "hurt" cry and Grayson running into his room saying "keys, keys, keys"...I walked in to see my car keys inches from Pax's face. Sweet brother had thrown the keys up onto the bed narrowly missing Pax's face. It was funny and ridiculous all at the same time.

Then the other morning as I was putting on a skirt he walked up to me, grabbed the skirt and said "cuuuute" in the only way a two yr. old can. This was about an hour after he crawled up in my lap and said "hi babe".

Jon finally had his first full two days off last week in over four weeks. It was amazing. We had two great days! We spent the first day in Flagstaff sitting outside listening to great bluegrass with all the other hippie families while our kids ran around dancing. It was a great few hours. Thank you Grayson for cooperating. Then the next day we went hiking with Uncle Mike up Bill Williams. It was our first hike with both kids and it was great. It was 6 miles round trip and was worth every step. Then we came home and grilled out with several friends and ended the night with a bonfire. I love summer and friends. Camp has started and it has been so good to have friends with kids to have play dates with. I feel like a broken record a little bit when I say that life is good, full and busy all at the same time. We love where we are, we love our jobs, our friends and the community we live in. We are incredibly grateful for all we have.

We also love our garden. It has been a great place for us as a family to be.

I am so grateful for that space in our lives.

What I do when it snows outside in April...

2010-04-29T15:36:00.001-07:00

Two random videos of the boys and I.

Grayson is such a ham. He LOVES looking at himself on the computer.

And Pax has the sweetest smile ever.

oh today..

2010-04-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

It was a good day. And it's been a good week. Just me and the boys learning to do our days together. Oh and it's spring in Northern Arizona which means that our weather alternates between winter and summer every few days. Snow then 70 degrees. I don't mind it too much other than I need to put away winter clothes but can't and Grayson can't really play in 60 mph winds.

I don't have much to say really other than I am embarrassed that I live in Arizona right now. But that's all I will say about that. So I will take a cue from all my cute blogging friends and go for the "Almost Wordless Wednesday" and just post some pictures of the last week.

Enjoy!

Pax taking a little nap. He's real good at those.

Grayson taking a little nap. He has started getting up at 6:00 am, so naps are getting earlier and earlier. I told him had 5 more minutes to watch the Wiggles and when I came back he was already asleep. It was real cute.

Pax wearing his real cute onesie from Aunt Jessica. His face looks pretty rough from what we are pretty sure is an allergy to ME having dairy. Good times. I miss it already.

Grayson giving me some flowers we picked from our front yard. We had to throw them away because they were covered in bugs. Sad. But it made for a cute picture.

Grayson definitely has those moments when he wants to be the baby.

Snow. In April.

Even Grayson is shocked!

Playing basketball and wearing his bike helmet. He is VERY safe.

Joff and Pax taking a little nap together. So sweet. I love them.

Grayson is TWO!

2010-04-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

My little man turned TWO last Saturday. I can't believe it. We had a great weekend. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with a trip to the Deer Farm (the pictures will explain) and then cake and ice cream back at the house with some good friends. The median age of Grayson's friends is still like 26, but that's ok. He has more fun with the older kids anyway!

Glam was here to celebrate Pax's arrival and G-man's birthday and it was great. They had so much fun together and it was so nice to have an extra set of hands! We love you Glam!

Pax was great the whole time at the Deer Farm (which means he slept all wrapped up in the Moby!)

Grayson's cupcakes. (Made with my new kitchen aid mixer that I LOVE!)

Family Picture! (this was after all the festivities) Yes, the bike is a little too big. Sad.

Grayson get some AWESOME presents. Thanks friends and family for being SO generous.

Yummy cupcakes! (I mean could he be any more photogenic?)

The party table.

All of Grayson's grown up friends at the Deer Farm. (there were 2 babies and 2 under 4...)

Feeding the goats with "Dah-hy" (how he says Dad) and Glam.

I mean they get real close!

He was NOT afraid though. It was awesome to watch.

Right now it is SNOWING outside for the second day in a row. Yes it will be back in the 60's by the weekend but right now it is in the 30's and snowing. For real. NOT fun with a 2 yr.old that just wants to play outside! Oh well. He had his 2 yr. check up on Tuesday and everything went great. He did have to get a few shots so we've been watching the Wiggles and cuddling on the couch the past two days. His little legs are sore...

I did start back to work this week and it could not have been poorer timing as my internet modem died over the weekend, so I have had to cart the boys up to camp and the coffee shop to be able to send emails and work! Not fun, especially in bad weather. But oh well, it hasn't been THAT bad and I am just grateful to have a job that I can do and be with my boys. I know I would miss them terribly if I had to be away from them all day. As I sit here and type (with the snow outside) Grayson is standing beside me on the couch playing with my hair watching the Wiggles, I am wearing Pax in his wrap and he is snoring and I feel loved. Again, grateful.

Our time with Glam was so nice. The weather was AMAZING while she was here. We went on several walks...to the train, to the coffee shop, to the post office. We spent time in the backyard and Glam and Grayson got lots of quality time in the morning as he insisted they start playing around 6 every morning (Thanks Glam!). We were all sad to see her go!

And I have used up all my time...Grayson is asking to "walk" which is what he says when he wants to show you something he wants.

Oh little man, how funny you are!

Pax is one month old!

2010-04-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. Yesterday was not. And I think this is the story of the next year (or 18) of my life and I am ok with that. As long as everyday is not like this past Monday. Grayson was a wreck. He lost it (and by lose it I mean threw himself on the ground screaming and crying) at EVERYTHING. I couldn't do anything right. By 10 that morning I called Jon and asked if we could come to camp and follow him around just to get out of the house and give him room to run. That was a good call except for the gale force winds. But it was better than the alternative, ie being in the house with him by myself.

I think being with other people is what keeps us sane. Really.

Life feels precious right now. You know those moments, those days or even weeks when you are keenly aware of how blessed you are? That is the past few weeks for me. My grandmother was in the hospital and has been diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy...a fancy word to say her heart was attacked by a virus and is now greatly weakened. She is ok for now and at home resting. Her life has been greatly altered however and her health most likely will never be back to what it was 2 weeks ago. Just like that. A virus. Then my "uncle" Ken (he is my mom's cousins husband) but a dear family member, was diagnosed with leukemia. He had no symptoms 3 weeks ago. They are hopeful and it is treatable, but still. Life is full of surprises. The good and the bad.

I know that I am feeling this so acutely because of the new life that has just entered mine. Pax is a constant reminder of innocence and life at it's simplest. He is so precious and life is so fragile. I savor every moment that I spend with my children (ok, maybe not EVERY moment) and my husband. I am so grateful. For it all, the good, the sweet, the hard and the frustrating. I am blessed and I have done nothing to deserve it. I only hope that I can love others well and teach my children to do that same.

On a lighter note, Grayson is hilarious. He is saying about 10 new words a day. He can repeat the alphabet and numbers...It is awesome to see a small person grow. Really amazing.

I am really excited about the summer, about the weather being warm, about eating vegetables from my garden and making my latte spending money from selling eggs from my crazy chickens! I am excited about eating right and exercising. You know how they say that if you write something down you are some percentage (I could make it up, but that's dumb) more likely to do it? Well right now I am hoping to run a 5k at the end of June, a 10k in September and a half marathon in January. All of this in hopes of feeling better and getting back to my pre-Grayson weight. So there, I said it. It's out there. We'll see. I have hope. Now I just have to save up enough $$ to get my double BOB so that I can run with both boys!

Pam comes tomorrow! YAY for Glam. I am excited to be with her, and to watch her and Grayson bond. He is at such a fun age. It will be a great few days. I am sure I will blog about it next week.

Until then...here are some pictures of life that past week:

Grayson dumping bird seed on the ground. The crows (or ravens) loved it. They are so gross.

So, the pictures are not in order. But we made peanut butter/pinecone birdseed feeders. This is Grayson tasting the birdseed. Yum.

Grayson making a mess. But at least he wasn't screaming or yelling at me.

Some of our friends had a "sip'n'see" for us and Pax. It was real fun.

This is Grayson loving the cupcakes at the shower.

My sweet friend Shea made these. (note the blue frosting on Grayon's face in the picture above).

Just another sweet picture of my little boy.

And the proof that Sarah came and we were all together! Love her.

Pax is three weeks old!

2010-04-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

It is crazy that Pax was born three weeks ago today. Pax is such a sweet baby. He does well what baby's are supposed to do, eat, sleep and gaze lovingly into my eyes when he isn't doing the other two things. Oh yeah, there are the diapers...but whatever, that's the easy part.

Infants=easy. Two year olds=NOT easy. Give me a baby to nurse and rock any day. How any of us managed to make it to adulthood blows my mind, because that means someone took care of us and nurtured us through our 2nd (and 3rd) year of life. Hats off to every mom I know. Seriously. Grayson is kicking our butts. The best/hardest part is for every meltdown, temper tantrum and scream there is the adorable, cute and heart melting moment that makes you want to have 5 more. It's horribly unfair to put such terror and cuteness in the same package. But that has to be the only reason we are all still here. The cuteness and the tremendous patience our parents found somewhere.

I am sitting here wide awake while my two sons (and Sarah) are napping. I too should be napping but can't. Maybe feeling like I need to document some of Grayson's cuteness before I forget! Like yesterday morning when he "taught" Pax how to burp. My mom (within 2 minutes of being in the car with Grayson) taught him how to make a burping noise, cover his mouth and then slap his leg while he laughs. It is hilarious to watch them laugh at each other. So Grayson is crawling all over me yesterday morning in bed while I am trying to protect Pax from his steamroller brother, and I say "hey Grayson, show Pax how to burp". He stops what he is doing and takes Pax's hands into his own, holds them up to Pax's mouth and then makes a burping noise. It was so funny. And Grayson was of course so tickled that he could show his little brother how to do something. Hopefully in the future it will be more productive things, but for now it is burping. Last night at dinner when I asked Grayson to eat his fish he starts pointing at it saying, "Nemo, Dory, Nemo, Dory..." It was funny and tragic all at the same time.

I just said, "No buddy, it's just fish" and he ate it. (that could have been disasterous).

My grandma also sent us an Easter package that had some Sesame Street big boy underwear in it for Grayson. Well, we aren't quite there yet so he had no idea what they were for. All he knew is these kind of look like hats and have Elmo, Grover and Cookie Monster on them. So hats they are. He has been walking around the house with them on his head as hats. The best part is the elastic is so tight that it scrunches up his forehead and pushes his eyes closed so he is walking around squinty-eyed.

I know Pax is the new addition and this blog should be more about him...but let's be honest. Newborns are cute to look at but they aren't great for good stories. YET. I look forward to about 10 months from now when the two of them really start interacting. I am not wishing away the next 10 months as I will cherish every second of his babyhood since it does go by SO fast. I am just acknowledging how Grayson-centric this blog (ok, my life) has been and how that will change!

For the sake of not being too repetitive, I will just post a few pictures since these are all on facebook and my shutterfly website (www.theoffnerfamily.shutterfly.com)

Jon and I are well. I miss him, but I know we will get to be friends soon enough!

Let the good times of raising to little boys begin. (I am little intimidated to be honest!

2o days old...

Big Brother...

Pax and Mommy on Easter Sunday.

Yes, that is a for real smile.

Grayson was real happy!

Gram Jan and Grayson...

Loving the undies on the head.

Yep, the Grand Canyon!

He's here!

2010-03-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

The ride home (sorry, they loaded backwards).

New born exam. Love my midwives.

Right after he had been born. Seconds, literally.

Sweet Baby.

Getting swaddled (look at that hair!)

No more waiting. Pax Thompson Offner made his debut last Tuesday, March 16th at 9:58 pm. A day before his due date. He weighs 7lbs. 14 oz and is 20 inches long, just a little lighter and a little longer than his older brother. However he looks much different than Grayson! Pax has a head FULL of dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin. My labor and delivery was short and sweet. I could not have asked for a smoother delivery!

I woke up that morning around 6 am with slight contractions and the feeling that this could be the day. I waited about half an hour before I told Jon that I didn't think he should go into work that day. He gladly obliged! We got up and started going about our day thinking it could start to pick up at any time, we called the folks watching Grayson to let them know it could be sometime soon. I wanted to have cute toenails so we walked to Safeway so I could buy some nail polish but of course our Safeway doesn't sell nail polish (WHAT? that just seemed weird to me). So we just kept walking. We walked up and down Route 66 about 4 times that day. I would fall behind every so often as I walked through a contraction. It was not a bad way to spend pre-labor. I then called my friends Jen and Katie and asked them if they wanted to come over for a pre-labor party, eat some spicy Thai food for lunch and help me paint my toes (asking them to bring some nail polish of course). They were both thrilled to come to a "pre-labor" party. I mean who wouldn't be excited?

So they came over (mind you I have been having contractions every 15-20 minutes ALL DAY so far) we ate lunch and all sat on the couch and watched funny YouTube videos and read my friend Robin's hilarious blog and laughed real hard. They went home around 4 and nothing much had changed so we decided to go on another walk. We loaded Grayson up and started walking 66 again. We ended up at American Flyer, our local coffee shop that Jon and I keep in business. No really, I should be part owner we are there so much. We played some Yahtzee (a new found passion of ours-Jon usually wins but I always seem to get the Yahtzee's) and in the middle of conversation with my friend Taylor I realized that I couldn't really keep talking to her through that contraction and needed to get up and walk. I told Jon we should probably walk home. We got home and around 6:30 started timing the contractions as they seemed to be getting stronger and little more close together. Yep. By 7:30 I had had 12 contractions lasting about a minute a piece and they were 5-6 minutes apart. I wasn't sure if we should call the midwives yet because I didn't want to over-react but Jon called anyway. They said we should head on over since this was number 2 and we were a solid 40 min. away. Katie came and got Grayson and by the time it was all said and done it was 8:45 before we walked into the midwives. The ride over was NOT fun in case you were wondering. We walked in, got settled and when MaryAnne checked me to see where things were at she told me I was already 8cm dilated. That explains the "not fun" car ride to Flagstaff. After an hour more of contractions (also not fun) I felt ready to push. And I kid you not my water broke with push number one and 4 minutes later I was holding little Pax in my arms. He was born at 9:58 pm. Three and a half hours of active labor and there he was. Jon held his head, helped rotate the shoulder, deliver the whole body and place him in my arms. It was amazing. Pax pinked up right away and gave us several sweet baby cries. It was incredible.

I had asked our friends Jen and Shea to come take pictures of the birth. We didn't have any pictures of Grayson until a few hours after he was born and I wanted to be sure to get some different pictures this time. I had told them they could be apart of as much or as little of the birth as they wanted. (I didn't want to scare them out of having children of their own!) They both were able to be in the room as Pax was born. I don't want to speak for them, but I am pretty sure it was an experience they will never forget. Not to mention the fact that they caught some really sweet moments on film for me. And I am grateful for that!

I have to say again that birthing with the midwives in a home environment is one of the best decisions that Jon and I have made with both Grayson and Pax. Both times I have felt cared for and safe as I brought two beings into the world. The midwives give me all the attention I need all the while letting Jon and I feel like we are doing it just the two of us. It has been good for me as a woman to learn to know my body in a way that I would never have experienced in the hospital. It has been amazing for Jon and I to go through the birth experience together, the midwives include him in everything and never did he feel like a spectator to his son's births. He was in it with me. Despite the pain, as Pax was born the room was soft and quiet and everyone there just watched in awe as a person was brought into the world. As I have heard the midwives say before, it is never just another birth, it is a miracle every time. I love how much we got to savor the moment of that miracle in our quiet and peaceful room.

Life as a family of four has been sweet this week. Jon has been home all week and has been amazing. He has been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and most importantly become Grayson's best friend. They have really bonded and it has been sweet to watch. They built a fence in the backyard (to keep Grayson in!) over the past two days and Grayson has LOVED being in the dirt and mud with his dad. I know "life" hasn't really begun in the sense that I know I will be much more overwhelmed once Jon is back at work and it's just me and the boys. Crazy, I have boys, plural. How grateful I am for my little family. I am overwhelmed.

More blogs and pictures to come as we begin this new phase of life.

and waiting...

2010-03-13T21:59:00.001-08:00

Waiting is not such a bad thing. And in the wise words of my mother "Waiting to go into labor is just one more reminder of how much we are NOT in control". Good reminder. Thanks Pax.

In the mean time we have had some great family time! Jon had Thursday and Friday off and then this whole weekend. While we thought we would be adjusting to life with a new infant by now we have really enjoyed time NOT dealing with an infant, just a 23 month old that wants constant attention. But he's real cute so we don't mind too much.

We have played Yahtzee at American Flyer (local coffee shop) every afternoon, gone to the playground a bunch, taken family naps, made huge pillow piles to jump on, spent time at the kid's corner at the library and have just enjoyed being together.

I am feeling pretty large and awkward, but that's too be expected right? Bottom line is Pax will come eventually, I can't stay pregnant forever and soon enough our lives will be upside down and inside out as we adjust to being a family of four.

I love the anticipation...it makes every event I go to that much more exciting because I could just go into labor there. I love good stories. Even embarrassing ones. So Pax if you aren't coming early at least give me a good story to tell!

Grayson just getting ready for spring training.

Please note how wet his pant legs are. Behind the slide are HUGE puddles that Grayson had SO much fun jumping and falling in. We didn't stay long, it was a sunny but cold day!

Grayson and Dad walking down to American Flyer for our lattes and Yahtzee.

Again, my sweet boys walking in Williams.

Just waiting for Pax

2010-03-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

Little babyhead with his daddy getting ready to go to bed. So sweet.

39 weeks today...and still no sign of little Pax, well other than my ginormous belly! Friday was my last day of work so it's been nice to be at home with Grayson and have the time and energy to be with him. He is so much fun. Today we played on a pile of pillows in the middle of the living room for like an hour. I didn't jump as much as just laid there and let him jump and roll all over me! It was cute to see him having so much fun with something so simple.

We took a really long nap, which was awesome. I am glad Pax didn't come yesterday or today as we have ridiculous snow again. I am SO over the snow. Last week it was warm and the playground up the street was clear from snow and Grayson loved it. But now we have been trapped in the house with blizzard like conditions that past few days. Spring where are you?

These are eggs from my chickens (yep, I have THREE that are laying. Aren't they pretty?) Which by the way are a pain to take care of when it's snowing.

My little man reading a book. Obsessed with reading. I love it.

Grayson just being the cute little boy that he is.

Grayson waving from his pile of pillows that we played on all morning.

Grayson doing P90x. Seriously, he gets his yoga mat, Jon's shoes and makes me put the video on. He does stretches and everything. It's awesome.

38 weeks...

2010-03-05T21:37:00.001-08:00

It's so close. Us becoming a family of four that is. Today was my

last day of "work", at least the work I get paid for! We all know having another baby in the house is definitely work. But I am hoping that Pax will give me a little more time off than Grayson did. If he chooses to be like his older brother my water will break around midnight tonight, but I don't see that happening.

I am so much more anxious this time around, meaning I can't wait for this baby to come. With Grayson I was so convinced that he would come AFTER his due date because that's what they say about most first time moms. This time around it feels like it could be any day! I am having a hard time keeping the house as clean as I want it and my legs shaven, you know just in case I go into labor at any moment I need a clean house and smooth legs. Very important.

Anyway, things are good. I am just uncomfortable and ready.

Grayson is as cute as always. He is showing interest in the potty, so we got him a big boy potty. He loves the playground and he is pretty much the cutest kid ever. At least I think so.

Here are some pictures of the family. And Grayson.

Valentine's Fun

2010-02-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

So we have a 5th grade Valentine's Day party at work and I tried to make cute cookies. It was fun, a lot of work for cookies that didn't taste that great. But they did look cute.

The party happened at lunch...the morning preceding that fun lunch was not so fun. In the course of an hour Grayson "helped" me spill half a gallon of milk in the fridge (the lid wasn't on all the way), he dumped a cup of water in my lap (barely missing the Mac) and then as we were walking out the door to go to work he was carrying my cookies that I had spent so much time working on, and he tripped and landed flat on the whole bag. I didn't even open it to see how many had gotten crushed. It was just one of those mornings. Oh and I am 35 weeks pregnant. Real comfy. The other picture is Grayson at my desk at work watching Al Roker on Sesame Street because it is the only way I can get 15 minutes of work done when I am at the office. That would be because Grayson did successfully spill a whole cup of tea on my laptop so until I can get it replaced and up and running I have to go into the office to do ALL my work. I never realized how much I get when after he goes to bed now that I can't do it...Good times.

It's the final countdown...

2010-02-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

6 more weeks (give or take a few days) and we will have TWO little boys in the Offner household. We are excited and somewhat aware of the madness that will ensue!

We can't wait to see what little Pax brings to our family. Not much has happened the past few weeks...EXCEPT for the 5 days that Jon and I got to escape to a marriage retreat in Buena Vista, CO. Grayson spent those days with Josh and "Mamy" Smiley and their 2 boys whom he adores. He did beautifully with them and Jon and I were able to completely enjoy ourselves.

Grayson's personality is really starting to shine through, the cute and the not so cute. We are trying to remember the times when he is cute and says adorable things like dirt, church and doughnuts (which sounds like "nonuts"). The words that he is choosing to say are hilarious!

I just wish I could record him all day. And we are opting NOT to remember the temper tantrums, the hitting, the screaming, you know all those charming moments that make you want to show him you can scream louder but you decide that that is not the best parenting. Oh and how could one forget (I am trying) the moment when he knocked over a whole cup of tea onto my work laptop and the screen immediately went blank...that was sad. He was upset because I was upset but it was a little cute when he ran to our towel drawer to get a towel so I could mop it up.

It's snowing again. Jon's at work and Grayson's asleep. This moment is rare so I might go read a book, or not!

Grayson enjoying some chocolate pudding (cute moment).

Grayson reading some Dr. Seuss...he is very enthralled.

This is me in Buena Vista at the coolest outdoor seating area. Yeah, all that furniture is made out of tile. I have asked Jon for this for our backyard...he's working on it.

Grayson found a hat that was a gift for Pax. He loved this hat and when I asked him to sit at his table to so that I could take some pictures he was more than willing to oblige. It was quite hilarious.

Grayson at a playground in Williams.

It's the little moments

2010-01-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to actually make meals and sit down and eat dinner as a family lately. And I always like to light candles even if it's pizza. Lighting candles makes it an event to be enjoyed. Anyway, Grayson is of course fascinated with everything that could potentially hurt him and kept trying to climb on the table and blow out or touch the candles. I grabbed my camera (with my sweet new lens, thanks Glam!) and got these precious pictures of my first born. The precious first born that I just referenced is rolling around on the floor whining because I am not paying attention to him. Oh Grayson.

I did have to add a sweet picture of "sick" Grayson cuddled up on the couch with "Melmo" and "Cook" watching Sesame Street, reading his "Melmo" book. It is cute when they don't feel well and just want to sit.

And here he is (with those squinty eyes) saying "ball, ball, ball?"

It's a new year

2010-01-09T11:42:00.001-08:00

Well after the horrible day traveling to Michigan we spent 12 days visiting family and enjoying lots of snow. It was a great trip, good to see my family and we were ready to come home when we did. Jon got there on my birthday and left the day after Christmas so Grayson and I did get a few extra days on each end to spend with my mom and Jon Michael. Then it was time for the trip home. I wasn't too worried about it after the trip out...big mistake. It was almost as bad, the only thing that made it not AS bad was the fact that I got up at 4am instead of 2am that day.

I won't describe the entire day as that's just boring BUT I will say it involved the following:

Being told I did not have an assigned seat and may or may not get on my first flight.

Sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours before take off.

Sitting on the tarmac for 45 min. in Chicago because our gate was being used due to reason above.

Standing in line for 1 hour with a running toddler with the rest of my flight getting rebooked because we all missed our connecting flights (and yes, no one let the pregnant lady by herself with the screaming toddler go to the front of the line. Who says chivalry is dead? Oh wait, I DO!)

Getting booked on a new flight that doesn't leave for another 7 hours. Sweet.

Running around the playground in the airport for 7 hours (ok, he did sleep for an hour in his stroller).

Landing in PHX at 6:30pm, eating dinner and then driving back to Williams and getting home at 10:30 on New Year's Eve...and being in bed by 11:00pm. I had been up for 21 hours straight.

But you know what? Bad travel days happen. I did learn a few things though:

It is ok to offer people help (ie, the pregnant lady trying to open her stroller on the snowy, icy tarmac with her squirming baby in one hand and diaper bag in the other).

One should not use the family companion toilet if you do not have a companion (your luggage does not count people) or again, at least let the people it was intended for go AHEAD of you.

I had a lot of other witty, sarcastic things in my head that whole day but I have let enough time go by that I don't remember them all. Which is probably ok, I don't need to sound too bitter and angry.

Life is good. It is good to be home. Grayson is FINALLY back on his sleeping schedule. It took a whole week but he is back to sleeping through the night in his own bed. I could not be happier, (or Jon for that matter). It was a gentle reminder of what is to come. Little Pax (yes, that is his name) will be here in 9-10 weeks and we are trying to savor all the sleep we can. I am pretty sure Grayson knows that something is coming...he is more clingy than usual, but I don't mind (well most of the time I don't mind). He is a sweet little boy and I can't wait to see him as a big brother. We took him to get a little boy haircut on Tuesday after my midwife appt. and he definitely looks like a little toddler now. I miss his baby hair. But he looks so handsome with his short hair!

We are getting ready for the madness, getting the house in order, trying to get life organized in general.

And in other news, one of our chickens decided to start laying again. I guess the 50 degree days are warm enough for her!

And that's all for now.

Holiday Travel

2009-12-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

So what do you do when what should have been only 12 hours of travelling turns into 21?
(oh and that travelling involves a 7 month pregnant woman and her 20 month old, alone-ie no husband).
You:
1) cry at the ticket counter at 5:45 in the morning when they tell you missed the check in time by 3 min. (even though you got up at 2:30 in the morning after going to bed at midnight) because you had to drive 2 1/2 hours to even get to the airport.
2) Buy your son socks (because you forgot to pack them in your carry-0n because he was in his Pj's when you left the house at 2:30am) for $5, which is more than you would EVER spend on ONE pair of socks. Stupid Airport.
3) Buy your son a baseball (at least it was rubber) that he can throw at people and make them trip as they pass by (this is after he was pointing at the SIGN on the store that had a football and basketball lodged in it, saying ball, ball, ball for 25 min straight insisting that you get it for him.)
4) Spend a ridiculous amount of $$ on food since you are trapped in an airport with a baby and are bored.
5) Let your 20 month old eat a whole bag of Twizzlers on the plane because it keeps him quiet.
6) Let your son break the airline headphones because it is keeping him entertained, even though you really wanted to watch the movie they were showing (at least they were free).
7) Laugh when you get a bloody nose on the plane because your son "honked" your nose...and then laugh (only on the inside) that you can't get up because you are stuck between 2 business men so you have to page the flight attendant to bring you tissues.
8) Put Pepsi in your son's bottle and let him drink because again it will keep him quiet while you and your mom get lost driving back at 11pm from the airport that is 2 hours away from her house that you had to fly into because United Airlines is lame and couldn't get you into Traverse City.

Well, that's what I would do IF that ever happened to me.

Snow and Christmas Tree

2009-12-10T20:49:00.001-08:00

Here we are cutting down our Christmas tree. I love that we just buy a permit and then drive into the woods and cut down a tree!

Grayson sitting at his early Christmas present from Glam! I came out of my room this morning and he was sitting at the table reading a book! It was about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

Grayson out in the snow. He says snow without the "s", which you would think sounds like "no" but it is different. I can tell, I promise.

We got two feet of snow in less than 24 hours. It was a lot of snow. It's still here.

And here I am 26 weeks pregnant. I need to take more pictures!

Life has been good and busy. We got to spend a lovely Thanksgiving in Raleigh and see Jon's family and some of mine. It is always so good to see everyone, it's never long enough.

I love Christmas. It's been fun with Grayson. He LOVED putting ornaments on the tree, and he oohs and ahhs at the lights on the tree every time I turn it on. He points at all the ornaments and says "ball, ball, ball" over and over. It's pretty cute.

He also can say boots and juice. I am ready for some new words. Everyone now and then the thought of having 2 under 2 overwhelms me and I start to hyperventilate. But hey, my mom did, Jon's mom did and we are pretty normal. And they both survived. Jess does it with three...I know it's doable, just scary! Oh life. Always changing.

Happy Little Grayson

2009-11-16T19:55:00.000-08:00

My friend Jen took these pictures of Jon and Grayson at camp this weekend.

Here he is eating the banana peel. I was not there so my friend Jen was watching him for me and she took a picture of him eating the banana peel instead of taking it from him. He did spit out the chunk that he bit off! Hilarious.

I have the happiest baby ever. And the sweetest husband.

We spent this past weekend at camp with 30 crazy high school kids. We are exhausted but it was so worth it. It is not often you get to be a part of life changing events. No really. One of our girls sat in cabin time on Sunday morning and said this weekend has changed my life. That simple. That real. I saw her today and asked her how she was. "Amazing", was her response. I mean to finally realize that you were made for a purpose, that you are loved no matter what you've done or not done is incredible.

Life is good. We are exhausted, busy and in love with each other and our baby...and of course little man on the way. Baby #2 is already making life busy! (it's a lot harder to carry a baby and chase a baby. I don't remember it being so uncomfortable!)

It's just been too long

2009-10-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

My Little Rockstar

This is him posing for the camera. He was LOVING it.

I don't really have anything important to say. Life has been good and full and busy!

Last weekend was Jeff and Heather's wedding and it was beautiful and amazing. They are so in love and it was so sweet to be apart of. Grayson was the ring bearer and pretty stinking cute in his little suit. It was so fun to see old friends as well.

It snowed today in Williams. Weird weather. I just couldn't bear the fact that I hadn't updated my blog in 5 weeks. It felt wrong. So until the next time that I have nothing important to say...

And we're alive

2009-09-19T21:20:00.001-07:00

Jon and Grayson at the top of Cloud's Rest. It was an amazing rewarding 14 mile hike, and the view was all of Yosemite Valley.

Well we are officially back from assignment, back from vacation, all the guests/nannies are gone and life is back to "normal", whatever that means!

Our month on assignment about killed me in every sense of the word. It was amazing but one of the harder things Jon and I have tackled. It was hard for all the obvious reasons, and on top of having an exhausting job (head leader) Jon and I also found out the week before we moved onto camp that we are pregnant! Baby number two is on it's way and is due to be here around March 17th. We were surprised and excited to say the least. It did make for an adjustment to our JMT hike. Jon and Adam went on the hike and then me, Emily and our friends the Kopicky's met up with them in Mammoth Lakes and then Yosemite. We spent a whole week camping, hiking and just hanging out. It was amazing. I have to say a week of camping with Grayson was hard. I was ready for a nice relaxing night in a king size bed. So for our 5th anniversary (yes, 5 glorious years) Jon took me to Sedona to an amazing bed and breakfast, the most amazing dinner ever and a massage at one of the spas! Amazing.

So much has happened in the past two months. I feel like we dropped off the face of the earth and here is my little attempt to reconnect!

I will post pictures and more details of all the fun events that have happened in the past 2 months when I have a little more time.

Off to our Assignment we go

2009-07-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

So Jon and I move onto Lost Canyon property for the month tomorrow to start our assignment. I am thrilled, exhausted and thrilled all at the same time. I most likely will not be updating this blog, or facebook, or emailing or calling much at all this next month. One, due to complete lack of time (our schedule is insane) and two, trying to fast a bit from our slight addiction to technology. We shall see. That said I just want to make sure that all know they are not being ignored or slighted, but we really will have fallen into the abyss known as an assignment at Lost Canyon.

Your prayers for health and rest will be most coveted as both are so important for our month to be enjoyable!

I look forward to updating you all with pictures from the month and hopefully some fun stories!

Custom Gear by Glam

2009-07-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Glam left today. Sad to see her go, but it was a great visit! We spent a lot of time in the garden and at the house just being. It was so nice. Here are just a few pictures.

The girls out by the sunflowers.

Grayson eating one of our first strawberries! They taste SO good.

Glam and Grayson in the garden.

I told Jon I had promised my "readers" pictures of the finished products! So here they are...

Down Baby Sleeping Bag by Glam and Custom Sun Shade, also by Glam.

Another day on the farm

2009-07-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

We had our first produce last night for dinner! A yummy delicious fresh mesculun salad. It was amazing. Seriously, it was so satisfying to eat. And pretty to look at too!

Pam (Jon's mom) has been here since Wednesday and has been helping us in the garden as well as making some custom gear for Grayson for our hike (like a baby down sleeping bag and a serious sun shade for his back pack carrier). I will post some pictures of those finished products...when they are finished!

In the mean time here a few snapshots of the garden improvements (fence for squash to grow up and tomato cages), my salad and of course an updated picture of Oreo and her amazing Vegas showgirl do....

The Kitchen

2009-06-30T10:26:00.001-07:00

I got home from Michigan to this! I wish I had a before shot handy...but where you see a dishwasher and sink there used to be a couch (which we miss, but I love my dishwasher more). You can't tell but it is washing dishes in this picture. Amen.

Jon definitely wins a prize for thoughtful husband and undertaking large projects in short amounts of time. He is pretty much amazing. I love him.

Grayson was very insistent on trying to help dad mow the lawn. It was ADORABLE.

It's been nice to be back at home with the garden and the chickens. We are down to FOUR chickens. I KNOW! We finally made their fence taller, it is now 6 feet tall and so far has been keeping them in! We are finally getting some veggies in the garden. They are still too small to eat, but it is so rewarding to see things actually growing.

These are some strawberries...

Here is a bell pepper. About as small as the tip of my thumb but hopefully it will keep growing!

I love the mesculun greens. They are so green and pretty. I just want to eat them now!

And here are the girls in their run. You can kind of see how high the fence is now. We let them out when we are in the garden and Wilco is now their shepherd. Seriously, he will bring them back to the coop if they go past our fence. It is amazing. He doesn't try to eat them any more he just wants to corral them!

And that's just a little up date from the farm. Jon's mom (Pam) comes tomorrow to stay for a few days. We cannot wait to see her! Then next Friday we move up to camp for the month so that I can serve as a head leader. Then the following week after that Emily (my sister) will be moving here for about 6 weeks to be Grayson's nanny, help us take care of the house, garden, dog and chickens while we are living at camp and then Phil, her husband, will join and we will all head out on the JMT at the end of August. It will be here before I know it, but in the mean time I plan to enjoy the last day of June!

Back from Michigan

2009-06-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

The kids at Otter Creek.

Grayson eating snacks on the boat (that we rented on Father's Day).

He LOVED being naked and in the water. It was adorable.

He also loved his Uncle Jon Michael.

And he loved throwing/eating the sand.

Grayson and I got home late Wednesday night from our week in Michigan. It was great, the only things missing were Jon and Jordan. But we did have a great time. Grayson LOVES the water. He could not stay out of it and did not care how cold it was. It was real fun to watch him play! And mom's new house is two blocks from the bay so we pretty much went every afternoon.

We did miss Jon terribly though...and to my great surprise came home to a newly tiled kitchen floor AND a dishwasher, new sink and countertop. Jon worked all day on both his days off to finish it before I got home. I was SO surprised.

I am tired, Jon is tired but things are great. It's been a great summer so far and we are not even half way through it!

Home again Home again, jiggity jig

2009-06-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

Just a few fun pictures from camp!

Well, I have to start with the biggest news! Jon and I are now Aunt Miriam and Uncle Jon on my side for the first time! My brother and his girlfriend Kiersten had a little boy on June 11th. He is 8lbs 9 oz and 22 in. long. His name is James and the middle name is still up for debate! Mom and baby are healthy and Jordan is in awe of his new son. So exciting! As soon as I have some pictures I will post them.

In other news...

We made it. We survived a week at camp. All three of us. Jon with 11 guys, me with 7 girls and Grayson had the week of his life living it up with the Smiley's. He could have cared less that I wasn't around during the day. He still needed me at night, but man does he love Justin and Ryan. Camp was amazing, I did all the things that I have never done like the zip line, mountain bikes, ropes course, frisbee golf course. I mean I have done these things, just not the ones at Lost Canyon...and this is our 5th summer here. It was about time. I had a blast with the sweet girls that came. I did not take many pictures as Jen had her camera the whole time. There are some amazing pictures if you want to check them out on Facebook. They are on my wall...

I leave tonight to head down to Phoenix to then catch a plane to Michigan to be with my family for a week. Excited to see them, sad to leave Jon and nervous about flying with a 14 month old that loves to walk...not sit or nap.

Precious Pictures

2009-06-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our friend Scotty is a great photographer and got some great shots of Grayson when he was up here last week. Thanks Scotty for sharing your pictures. What a great gift you have!

Jon and I head to camp today with 18 high school kids from Williams. I am so excited and so tired already! There are so many broken kids with awful stories that are coming with us. Please pray for us and these kids as we go to camp. I pray that they can come with us and be kids, have fun and let go of everything that is at home and be vulnerable and safe with us.

So to family, Jon and I will be at camp all week without much access to our phones or email. We haven't disappeared forever, just until next Saturday.

Sad day on the Offner Farm

2009-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

One of the "girls" (one of our chickens in case you are confused) fell victim to a neighbor's dog last night. Very sad. But I have to say she kept flying out of the coop and roaming free and it was bound to happen sooner or later. The ones that stay in the coop are the ones that live! We have several not so friendly dogs that would love to eat one of the chickens given the chance. My poor neighbor called me last night to tell us (we were up at camp til late). She felt so bad, but it wasn't their fault at all, dogs like chickens and I guess we need to make our fence taller. Lame.

Life feels busy right now. I am in charge of a fundraiser this week to raise last minute money for our kids to go to camp with us on Sunday (and for Jon and I...yes, we still have to pay to go to camp as leaders!) Thursday we are making dozens of enchiladas and delivering them to people for lunch. I hate being in charge of things that I have never done before. We will find out how many orders we have today, I want a lot so that we make enough money to make it worthwhile. But I am also nervous about people ordering too many!

Then we go to camp on Sunday for a whole week. My friend Amy is helping me with Grayson so that I can be at most of the big events without him. I will actually spend the night at Amy's house (they live on property) with Grayson too so that he doesn't wake the girls up at 3 am every night! It will be an awesome and exhausting week for the whole family for sure.

Grayson continues to be adorable and a handful. He makes me laugh ALL the time, especially when he laughs at himself for no apparent reason. He has gotten in the really bad habit of waking up at 6:30 in the morning. But I can't complain, he has been napping longer during the day which is nice. Can't have it all right?

Live is good, full and busy. But that is better than bad, empty and slow. I think!

He really does bring me such joy. I love this kid!

A Normal Breakfast

2009-05-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Our morning routine is my favorite. Maybe because I love breakfast food or because Grayson is really funny in the morning or maybe it's because I get to drink a latte or two if I feel like it.

Eggs, oatmeal, fruit, waffles...it's easy baby food, healthy and he loves it! I am going to write a children's book called "Blackberries for Grayson" based loosely on "Blueberries for Sal" the best kids book every! My fridge is stocked with every kind of berry right now. I wish that they were from my garden but maybe next year.

Today is a gorgeous day here in Williams. The best kind of Arizona day, clear blue sky, light breeze and it will warm up as the day goes on. My heart is heavy and full as I sit here. My dearest friend Leigh lost her mom this week after almost two months of critical illness. It was sudden and has been an agonizing season to watch her and Brad walk through. Today is the funeral and I can't be there to hold my friend's hand. Not that I am magical and she needs me, but words telling her I love her seem lame and trivial. Being there is sometimes the best thing and I wish I was. But I know that there are other people there to love her. It makes me want to say outloud that I am grateful for my mom. My family, my sisters, my friends....Grateful for where I am in life and for the things that I have as I know we are not promised tomorrow. Lynne lived a full life and loved well, I only hope that people will say the same of me. This hymn is one my favorites and brings me comfort. I texted the first line to Leigh this morning just to let her know I was thinking of her and that I love her...and she texted back that they are singing it at the service and she's been singing it the past 60 days.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee,
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee,
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee,
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

3:30 am

2009-05-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

This time has been a constant in my life the past three days. Not sure if you can say "constant" when it's only three days but Thursday morning I had the brillant idea of suggesting to our awesome girl interns that we should go see the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. Um, the sun gets up at 5:15 so we had to meet at my house at 4:00 which means I got up at 3:30. And guess what, we missed the actual sun "rise". It was still pretty but it was definitely light at 5:10 when we rolled into the park. Guess I read the time wrong?@!? And of course Grayson was super happy baby all day and needed minimal napping that day so no nappy nap for mom...just some dishes and laundry. Then the next day, Friday, was graduation at the high school. The ceremony was at 7pm (not 3:30 am) BUT being the awesome town that Williams is they have a Grad Night at the Rec Center where they have bouncy things, music, food, games and prizes (like cold hard cash) for the graduates until 3am. And because we did such an AWESOME job at Prom helping the faculty clean up they asked if some YL leaders could help chaperone. We said of course...to a very long night. Don't get me wrong it was so fun, but I rolled into my bed at 3:00am...to be woken by a very happy baby at 6:40 this morning.
Oh precious sleep where have you gone?
So it's 8am here in Willytown and I have alreayd been to the store (to get milk for my latte) fed my baby, let the chickens out, fed them, read a few other blogs, and had my latte. I mean we are usually up between 7-8 (8 being an awesome day because it's usually more like 7:15 when he gets up)...but I feel suprisingly awake which means I will crash around 1:00 this afternoon when Grayson is in full swing. Right now he is sitting in front of me in his high chair making an amazing mess on his tray...peanut butter, apple juice, waffle and cheerios make a good mash to rub in ones hair, or so he thinks. Man I love this kid. Even if he does laugh when he bites my finger (I even did the serious "No Grayson that hurt mommy" and he laughed in my face). Still love him. That's unconditional love right?

For the love

2009-05-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

I am hands down the worst (ok not worst) but close to worst blogger ever. Meaning I never update it. And then I wait a whole month and get intimidated and think I can never catch up on the past month and all the pictures and stories and blah blah blah.
Between Facebook, our blog and our shutterfly website it's almost too much. Ok, it is too much. I wish I lived within walking distance of everyone I loved so we could just pass each other on the street. If everyone moved to Williams we could do that. Seriously people, it's great.
But I know that won't happen anytime soon...so in the life of the Offner's not much has changed really. Grayson is officially 13 months old and a constant source of joy for both Jon and I. He is SO talkative and into everything! We are "in training" for our John Muir hike in September and that is fun. Jon's hiking pace is not quite mine, so we are working on that one. Wilco still drives me crazy, he barks when Grayson is sleeping and sheds ALL OVER the place. But Grayson ADORES him and says "dog" all the time and then proceeds to attack Wilco who takes it so well. The garden is up and running! We have mesculun greens and spinach in the ground and growing. All the other plants are still in their seedling trays as we could still get a good frost. Don't want those suckers to die. The chickens are huge and look like chickens almost. Oreo, the runt, has the most amazing mohawk that continues to grow. I am not sure she can see her feathers come down so far in her face. They also provide much entertainment. The interns have arrived and the rest of camp shows up tomorrow...then campers on Sunday. Hence begins the 11 week marathon. We are excited but know it will be a long summer. We will be living on camp ourselves for 4 of those weeks as I in a state of delirium agreed to be a head leader for 3rd session. My sister is thankfully coming out for most of that time to help with Grayson. It will be a growing/hard/fun time for us as we spend a month living on property instead of coming home at the end of each day. I have a million pictures and will post them all to our shutterfly website: www.theoffners.shutterfly.com It is much easier to put them up there than all on here, I promise... And maybe I will try and just post a little bit every couple of days instead of massive amounts once every 5 weeks. Just a thought.

Easter Sunday

2009-04-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

** I wrote this post about a month ago...and never published. Oops. More recent to come soon.

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. We went to a VERY early sunrise service at camp, had breakfast with some good friends and then went and hiked the Grandview Trail at the Grand Canyon. Grand was the theme of the day, and "GRAND" it was. I carried Grayson the whole way down and up, but only because I insisted. Jon offered and I refused. I am in training, and I had to prove to myself that we aren't crazy to think about hiking with him for 2 weeks straight! (when we do the JMT in September).

Life has been good but crazy the past few weeks. Spring is always busy at camp, so Jon is at work a lot. My job has been pretty busy with lots of groups coming and going, and of course our full time one year old that gets us up early and into bed late. We are both still volunteering at the high school with Young Life and that is also amazing, but exhausting in so many ways. We are so grateful for our jobs and our life here in Williams. It seems like the craziest place to end up, but we are so happy. It's so hard and so good all at the same time. But that is life, right?

How precious and how fleeting life is has really been hit home the past few weeks for me. So many of my friends are dealing with illness and death, and I am one step removed. Close enough for my heart to feel heavy in the midst of their pain, but I still get to move on with my day. So much of it doesn't make sense in my head, but I do know that God is good and that even when I don't get it He is still in control. Life is hard. Period. But there is still so much joy and life to be had in the midst of that "hardness".

Words feel trite when so many of my friends are dealing with heartbreak...

April Snow and Spring Chickens

2009-04-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, I had to start by posting these pictures of my husband. Seriously. It doesn't get any better than this. I love that we are actually doing some of the things that we talk about doing. Like getting chickens and starting a garden. I love that Jon loves projects. Sometimes the mess drives me crazy, and I would rather him clean the dishes or the bathroom than build a chicken coop...but at the end of the day I am grateful for the man I married. We definitely have fun together. More of the chickens and the coop to come...I promise.

But in the mean time, here are some pictures of my sweet little boy. He will be one a week from today! Wow. How time has flown. I remember last spring like it was yesterday. And now I have a one year old that gets into everything. He is not a wallflower that's for sure, as my grandma would say.

Gotta love the snow in April. I mean for real, my poor tulips are not going to bloom this year.

And to end I will leave you with a charming video of my sweet little boy and his calm ways.

We have chickens, or chicks rather...

2009-03-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

So Jon and I have been talking about getting a goat and chickens since last spring. After much research we decided getting a goat was a bad idea. They are a lot of work (if you want the milk) and we are busy with a few other things, like life! But chickens are fairly low maintenance for their product. So last Sunday (on a bit of a whim) we stopped in at the new feed store off of Garland Prairie Rd. and purchased 8 little chickens. They just handed them to us in a box, with some feed and a few instructions and off we went. Hilarious.

For now they are in a big rubbermaid, under a heat lamp, in the laundry room. Wilco is feeling a bit displaced as they are on top of his crate, and because he literally licks his lips everytime he sees/hears them we have decided to not let him sleep in the same room as them.

Our little brood of hens (we hope they are all female, one thing we failed to ask in our excitement of picking them out) went from 8 to 7 the first night. Natural selection had it's way and the little runt (she was cute and little) didn't make it. We aren't sure what happened...But as Jon said, "they are livestock, not pets..." It was a little sad, but they are just chickens. And at $3.95 a piece I could just go buy another one. (yes, I am dead inside) I have told Jon that I will not be killing/eating any of our chickens. Only their eggs. He begs to differ.

We have named them. Well, Jen named the new runt Oreo. She is yellow and black, like spring time Oreos. Thanks Jen for the original name. Then my mom named one Amelie and I decided that the rest would be my french brood. So we have Oreo, oh and Offner is the queen hen (the biggest one that perchs on top of their water bowl!), Amelie, Sophie, Audrey, Magalie and Elodie. I love it. Oreo, Offner and then the French chicks.

So here are some pictures. We will be using them in an Easter photo shoot with Grayson so be excited about those pictures! (That will be entertaining as all he wants to do is squeeze them, he doesn't get gentle yet).

This is the box they came home in. Their home now is much bigger!

I got this shot right before one pooped on the rug. Gross.

March Madness

2009-03-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

So I do love college basketball, but my March Madness has been something else. In the past week, we hiked to the bottom of the Canyon with Grayson, who then turned 11 months old! and we went to a Suns game in Phoenix. It's been a busy but fun week.

The hike in the Canyon was incredibly beautiful and kicked my butt. We hiked in 9.5 miles on the Hermit Trail, camped at Monument Creek then hiked out 15 miles on the Tonto followed by the climb out on the Bright Angel Trail. It was my first trip since being pregnant and I could feel it. I have the blisters to prove it. Grayson was a trooper and had no melt downs. He loved being in the tent and was overall amazing. We passed a ranger who said Grayson was by far the youngest backcountry hiker she had ever seen. We were proud.

This is our campsite on Saturday night at Monument Creek. This was 10 miles into the canyon. It was an amazing view of the Canyon and of the "Monument". This was Jon making breakfast on Sunday morning.

Me and my little man on our way out. Grayson was amazing. We stopped frequently to let him get out and not be in his pack, and eat dirt and rocks. It was fun getting all the comments about how "brave" (i.e CRAZY) we were taking him in. It was good for us as a family. Real good.

This is us at the beginning of the hike, still smiling (and don't worry we did make sure his face wasn't in the sun the whole time!)

Then the little man turned 11 months old...a milestone because that means in one month he will be ONE YEAR OLD! AHHH!!! I can't believe we have made it through a year of parenting alive! I mean I can believe it but it feels weird. He loves to run around naked (he is so fast without his clothes on!) and he loves to feed himself. So I have just decided I am ok with him needing a new outfit and a full on bath after every meal! It's worth the 30 minutes I get while he is in the high chair entertaining himself.

Then we got to go to a Suns game on Wednesday night. I have to say seeing Shaq and Grant Hill in person was pretty exciting. I am not a huge pro sports fan, but I have known of these guys since I was like 10. Only because Jordan was so into pro ball, but I still thought they were cool. It was awesome.

Jon and I smiling, because we are out doing grown up things (like going to a basketball game) without Grayson. Thanks to Mark and Sam Booth who kept him for us!

So I know this is a lame shot since there are no players on the court, but it's just to show how close to the court we were. And I didn't want to be the lame girl with her camera out the whole time!

And just a reminder that you can always go to our Shutterfly website to see more pictures:

www.theoffners.shutterfly.com

Oh the joy...

2009-03-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

We have flown back East twice since Christmas. And for that I am grateful, but oh so tired! Since October we have flown with Grayson FOUR times. Again, please let me reiterate how grateful I am that we can do that, but traveling with a 6,7, 8 and 9 month old is exhausting! He is a champ and Jon and I are quite good at getting through security with a baby and all that goes along with it.

Our trip in January was to Tennessee to be a part of a couple's weekend (yes Grayson did come) that was put on by our dear friends, Buddy and Kathy Odom. Along with 16 of our greatest couple friends (yes 16 couples) from Asheville. It was an amazing time of fellowship and sharing, laughing and crying (mainly from the 4 nursing babies!) It was worth the long travels most definitely.

We then got to go to Asheville for a whole week. That was a sweet gift. Jon had work training at Windy Gap and I decided he wasn't going to Asheville without me, so for the first time since we have left Asheville we got to go to Asheville just to be in Asheville. It was awesome. We stayed with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Jen in their adorable new house in West Asheville (home sweet home) and got to play with our friends all week.

Sarah, my mom and Caroline also made the drive up to visit us while we were there, which means I got to eat at all my favorite restaurants! It was so good for my heart to be with girlfriends that not only know me and get me, but that are right in the same place in life as I am. We all have babies under 1 yr. old. It's a unique time in life and we all appreciate the same things: people telling us our babies are cute and sleep.

Grayson was a trooper the whole time. He goes with the flow and has proven himself to be a good traveller, despite teething!

He now has 3 teeth on top and 2 on bottom, when I ask where his dog is he looks for (or at!) Wilco and repeatedly says "dah", he can cruise around the house holding onto furniture and yes, he has taken his first steps! We think he didn't know what he was doing and started for something before realizing there was nothing to hold onto. It was hilarious to watch him and both Jon and I got to see it. He is a little scared to try it again, but we are moving in the right direction. I have mixed feelings about him walking...I feel like he is already into everything. We might as well have a yard sale and sell everything but the couch since I have to hide everything from him!

He is pretty stinking cute, even if he has started biting to show affection! I can't believe that he will be 1 yr. old in 6 weeks. I remember this time last year thinking these 6 weeks couldn't go by fast enough. I was so ready to have him! Madness.

Grayson rocking his "Boob it's what for dinner onesie" and his awesome leggings. They keep his legs toasty warm yet let him crawl around as much as he wants. He hates pants.

Could he BE any cuter?

Jenn, moi, Grayson, Leigh, Miles, Beth and Ella Brooks...our kids love us!

Cario, Grayson and Gram Jan

Sarah, G-love, myself and Rawbin

Sweet Baby

2009-01-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd." – Rumi

Just my thought for the day, or my life...

Christmas and the New Year

2009-01-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

Well it is officially 2009. My ten year high school reunion is this year, I will turn 29 (the closest to 30 that I have ever been), Grayson will turn one and Jon and I will celebrate our 5 year anniversary. I am sure that this year holds much more for the Offner's these are just events that I am currently aware of.

Christmas at home was great. We got to spend good time with family that we don't see often enough and Grayson got his fill of cousins, aunts and uncles, and of course doting Grandparents and Great Grandparents. I am so grateful for these times we get to gather together and be family. The older I get the more I appreciate it.

So the winter has begun. We have mounds of snow on the ground and I love it. It is a winter wonderland for sure. We got a few more inches last night. The local ski resort has gotten 121 in. to date. We have had a little less, but that's still pretty good for the beginning of January..

I love seeing friends and being in this stage in life where we are starting our families together. I am so grateful that I was created to be in community and to care for others and be cared for, to love and be loved...it can sound so cheesy and trite, but that's ultimately what we all want on some level isn't it? I think so.

(This picture of my baby's blues is courtesy of WAC photography. Thanks Uncle Twan.)

I love watching Grayson grow . It is amazing to watch a human develop. He is waving good-bye, pulling himself up on things, army crawling like crazy and has increased his food repetoire to include favorites like avocado, hummus, cheerios, banana/strawberry smoothies (ok that was just once) but the kid likes food, anything really. He LOVES Wilco and that is fun to watch. Wilco is so gentle and patient when Grayson is crawling all over him, and when he has had enough he just gets up and moves.

Such is the life of Miriam, Jon, Grayson and Wilco for now.

Blizzard!

2008-12-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

We have had so much snow the past 2 days! It has been awesome. We haven't ventured out too much. We walked to have breakfast with Jon yesterday and walked in the snow. It was COLD and Grayson was not too sure about the cold stuff all over his face! Wilco on the other hand loves being in it. Hilarious. The only thing that would make it more fun would be if Jon got to stay home. But they don't cancel work like they cancel school. Too bad, heh?

Grayon is officially 8 months old today. It's weird to think he has almost been out in the world as long as he was in me. He is a curious boy that is ready to be walking but can only army crawl. He doesn't like to sit still and is into everything he can reach. Which most of the time is my face and hair. He has had a cold the past few days and wants only mom. Last night Jon said, "I'm sorry he loves you so much, I can't help!" I was like, "I know!" But I will take it. There will come a day when he will push me away and not let me kiss him, so I can deal with a clingy baby for now. He fell asleep in my arms this morning, breathing through his mouth and it was so sweet. I will be sad when he won't fall asleep in my arms.

Happy 8 months little man. You are loved.

First Birthday Party

2008-12-16T15:58:00.000-08:00

On Monday, we had a little surprise birthday for our friend Chelsea's one yr. old son Robert.

It was his 1st Birthday and Grayson's first birthday party. He was a joy.

We had lunch, cupcakes, and of course birthday hats. Who came up with cone birthday hats anyway? They hurt and are not that attractive, but do make for entertaining pictures!

8 months and counting

2008-12-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Jon and Grayson cutting down our Christmas tree.

Jon in the backyard tending to the turkeys.

Jon and Grayson taking a break on our hike in Sedona.

Happy Baby.

I am looking forward to the day when I can write about the funny things that Grayson does or says. For now he is cute and makes funny faces, belly laughs when you spit and crawls straight for the TV and DVD collection but there is not too much after that. So for now I will let the pictures speak of how fun he is!

Little Brown Bear

2008-11-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

So we were supposed to go camping in Zion with several friends and then the weather turned to crap. We decided camping in snow/rain with a 7 month old was not such a good idea (really that just makes it sound like we still would have gone if not for Grayson. But let's be honest camping in the rain/snow is NEVER fun no matter how old you are).

So we are here in Williams celebrating Grayson's 1st Thanksgiving. And we are so grateful, for everything. But this is not a Thanksgiving post. That will come tomorrow after I take pictures of all the festivities.

This is about his Little Brown Bear outfit that I bought for him to wear while we were at Zion so that he could stay warm. It is the softest, cutest "bunting" outfit ever. What the heck is "bunting" anyway?

But here he is in all his cuteness:

Grayson Growling

2008-11-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

Well he has most certainly discovered his vocal chords!

Things I don't want to forget

2008-11-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Sweet Little Pooh Bear.

My Happy Baby in the leaves in Asheville...Life makes sense in moments like this.

Grayson is 6 1/2 months old. It goes by so fast.

I don't want to forget that there was a day when he couldn't talk or sit up on his own.

I don't want to forget that at 6 1/2 months old:

He can growl like a bear.

He belly laughs at his dad a lot.

He is the happiest in the early morning, in bed with mom and dad.

He loves to watch his own hands.

He goes to sleep best with a soft blanket close to his cheek.

He hates his crib and loves our bed.

He only needs power naps (in the 15-35 minute range).

He is already all boy.

He loves sweet potatoes, apples and bananas, but not rice cereal.

Jon loves baby biscotti as much as Grayson does.

He was Pooh for his first Halloween.

He can say "dadadadada" and it's real cute.

He loves to be naked.

He loves to make noises in cups, and can already blow bubbles in water.

His free hand roams my face when he is going to sleep or breastfeeding.

I also don't want to forget what I have learned:

You can function on 4 hour increments of sleep for a very long time (still counting).

Sometimes a decaf latte can make it all better (or 2 or 3).

Somethings will never be the same, but that's ok.

There is no such thing as days off...only "family days" and "work days".

Being a mom doesn't always feel productive.

Productive is a stupid word.

Buying new diapers (the amazing all in one Bum Genius) is now a treat to myself.

It's ok to not be pregnant and still want to wear your maternity shirts.

Bananas stain clothes and bibs if not washed immediately.

Baby pooping faces are extremely entertaining.

I am not perfect. I already knew that, but motherhood confirms it even more.

My gratitude and respect for my mother is immeasurable.

Breast Milk Diapers=Sweet Goodness compared to Solid Food Diapers.

18lbs is heavy to carry for any period of time.

Bumbo's, Boppies and Brest Friends are good purchases.

Jon Offner is an incredible husband.

Phone conversations while sitting on the couch breastfeeding talking to best friends doing the same thing is good for my heart.

I am grateful and undeserving of the life I live...

Trip Home

2008-10-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

We just got home from a whirlwind tour of North Carolina visiting family and friends and showing off Grayson! He met more aunts and uncles, his Cherry, Nana and GG Barlow!

We got to meet all the babies that have been born in the past 6 months (Madelyn, Seth, Miles and Ruby) and even the ones that haven't (Ella Brooks)! It was so good and so tiring. It's good to be home but sad at the same time.

Here are some pictures of the highlights:

Friends. Need I say more.

Me, Rawbin and Sweet Ruby.

Grayson and Miles ready for the road trip.

Gram Jan and Jon at our favorite restaurant, Zest.

Annie and Grayson! Love her.

Grayson and Nana at Goodberrys

The Offner Women

Uncle Tim and Aunt Kara and Grayson

Sweet Little Madelyn Grace

Great Grandma Barlow and Grayson

Ok, I have a million more pictures but am tired. So I will post them later!

YAY for making fires and eating cereal

2008-09-27T22:03:00.001-07:00

Jon and I had a stay at home date with Grayson. We made a fire in our backyard and made sure Grayson was present to learn his father's outdoor skills.

Then we had dinner on our new outdoor furniture...I mean blanket.

Grayson slept for most of the meal in his crib, then dad put him back to sleep outside by the fire. Jon is so good at putting him to bed. You just need a pacifer and soft blanket and a little patience..ok, a lot of patience.

He had to make sure I was giving him the good stuff before he ate it.

He likes the spoon more than he likes the cereal at this point. And it's REAL messy. Not looking forward to real food. At least breast milk isn't messy!

Happy Mom

2008-09-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

He has discovered his lips and makes this funny face all the time now. Hilarious.

It's a new day in the Offner household. Breast Pump=Freedom

Grayson and Daddy having fun.

Grayson in the Sherpani on our way to walk around town.

He is sitting up so well these days.

He's incredibly polite and raises his hand to talk...

He also has old man hair and looks like Frank from Everybody loves Raymond (see the hair over his ears. I tried to cut it but was afraid to poke his eye out, he kept turning his head!)

Happy Baby

2008-09-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Jon training our son to climb. Doesn't it already look like he's saying "What mom? It's safe...I promise." Oh the joys of being married to Jon Offner :)

Grayson is such a source of joy in my life. I love listening to his little noises...and it makes me happy that he is finally loving his Baby Einstein jumpy thing! This weekend Jon and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. Saturday night Jon made me dinner and we actually had a "date night" as Grayson went to bed at 8:00! It was awesome to have some time alone...although an hour into our date night we found ourselves watching video footage of Grayson that we had recorded earlier that day. Thankfully my husband pointed out how ridiculous we were and we stopped. Grayson was finally asleep and we were watching him on video. Hilarious. It's hard not to be obsessed :).

Firsts of Firsts

2008-09-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 28th Grayson attended his first concert courtesy of Uncle Jeff. We saw Grayson's namesake (not really...) G-Love and Special Sauce at the Pine Mountain Amphitheater. Very fun. Grayson loved the lights, he was mesmerized. Jon and I of course loved being in the world of real adults. We sat at the back with all the other parents and their infants. No really, there were like 5 of us with infants. It was awesome. Thanks Uncle Jeff!

I have also officially started back to work part time. It's from home except for a few hours a week where I get to go up to camp and pass some things off before the weekend. And even then Grayson gets to come with me...so things are working out great.

Wilco, Grayson and I spend a lot of time together. Wilco is very protective of his baby and it's fun to watch them together. We are figuring out a schedule of when I can sit down and actually work. Right now it's a lot of Grayson on my lap while I type, but he can hold himself up so it's actually not too bad. The motion of my fingers keeps him occupied and when that gets boring he chews on my arm, or his stuffed cow.

Jon is camping with several guys from work the next three days, so it's just us. Good times. Can't wait for dad to get home. Single parenting is not easy.

The story of our day...

Bye to Auntie Em and Uncle Phil

2008-08-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sweet Bedelia, aka Emily, and her husband Phil are going back to England today after 6 weeks in the States. We got to spend an awesome 2 weeks in Michigan together. So here is a little video of Grayson "saying" goodbye, and what I mean by saying is, him staring intently at the computer screen as I talk like an idiot.

And of course I have to give a sweet shout out to my little sister Caroline who turns 21 today.

Happy Day of Birth Cario.

Love you!

The things I am learning

2008-08-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

So I was convinced that Grayson would love this jumper/activity center. He has been fighting laying on his back lately. But apparently that means something else. He is happy for about 5 minutes in this thing, and for those 5 minutes plays with his pacifier instead of all the other colorful items at his disposal. Maybe it's a little TOO overstimulating. We'll see.

In the mean time his hands and feet seem to be enough to entertain him for hours.

It's just funny how much one will spend on oversized kid's toys that clutter your living room just because the thought of them amusing themselves for, oh I don't know, 20 minutes while you do something else is worth every penny and piece of primary colored plastic. You think, oh they want to sit up so I will get them a Bumbo. Nope, they want to sit up with YOU. Then you think maybe they want to sit up with their toys in front of them in a little seat that spins. Nope, they want to sit up with YOU holding their toys while YOU spin.

I am learning slowly but surely.

Ode to Jon

2008-08-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jon's 28th Birthday.

Here is my ode:

Twenty eight years he has graced this earth

and he has been loved since his day of birth.

He's got a sense of adventure and a lack of fear,

curly hair and the craziest beard.

He loves to build, he loves to climb,

he loves the mountains and he's all mine.

He loves to craft his very own beer

and will sing in the car for all to hear.

He loves his son and he loves his wife,

he has drive and passion to live his life.

He loves to cook and he loves to eat,

a night at Fratelli's just can't be beat.

He hails from Jersey, there is no doubt,

cut him off and he just might shout!

He loves North Carolina through and through

but out West living fits him too.

Integrity, joy, passion and heart,

describes my husband and that's just the start.

Happy Birthday my love, I wish you many more to come,

full of friends and laughter and loads of fun.

Me and G-Love

2008-08-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

Grayson and I hang out alot. We can talk or not talk for hours. He is pretty much the boss of me and we do whatever he wants, for now anyway.

Michigan

2008-08-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

Grayson and I just got back from two weeks in Northern Michigan with my grandparents, my whole family (except for Jordan who is living in Conneticut) and even Phil, Emily's husband was able to join us for a few days. It was great family time and little Grayson got more attention than he knew what to do with. In fact I am suffering the consequences right now, as I type he is sitting cradled in one arm as I reach around him because he insists on sitting up and being held. I tried propping him up right beside me but I was quickly informed that that simply would not do. He is not interested in laying down any more. He can't quite hold himself up yet but he sure is trying and gets frustrated very quickly if I don't help! It's amazing watching this little person grow. He will be walking before I know it. It was quite hard being gone from Jon for so long. I don't think we will be gone that long again if we can help it. But at least it reminded us of just how much we really do like each other. Of course I love my husband but I really like him too!

I have to insert a very random thought here: I have always wanted to be on a crew team. I am watching the Olympics right now and rowing is what is on and it's one of those sports I have always thought I would be good at. Only because I loved the rowing machine at the Y. Which is a great indicator of how good I would be at the actual sport I am sure.

The trip was great because I got so much good time with family that I hadn't spent much time with since last September at Emily and Phil's wedding. It was nice to just be together and to watch my siblings love on Grayson. Of course Grandma Jan and Grandpa, Gigi and great-grandpa were very fun to watch with him as well.

We sat around, read, played nerts, did puzzles, went to a few shows at the Traverse City Film Festival (which was amazing), rented a boat for the day and played on Elk and Torch Lake. We toured the Sleeping Bear Dunes and went to Leeland. We rode 16 miles on the TART trail, had a fire on the beach, watched a storm come in over the Bay and of course got ice cream. It was a great trip.

While I was gone I had two dear friends give birth. Brittany had Owen Marshall on July 31st and Joy had Seth Jonathan on August 8th. Two healthy boys with happy families. Grayson can't wait to be friends with them!

Life with a three month old

2008-07-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

Grayson is officially 13 weeks and 6 days old (I know who counts in weeks and days!) and life feels crazy but good. We took Grayson to his first baseball game this weekend. I am not a huge sports fan, but who doesn't love the AZ Diamondbacks? He wore his Seattle Mariners onesie that the Carlsons gave him (it seemed appropriate). It was really fun except for the fact that it was 102 in Phoenix, but thankfully we live in Williams where it was 65 by the time we got home! The game was fun and Grayson did great on the 2 1/2 hour car ride there and back (and the D-backs won).

I am not sure what to do with this blog. I have been obsessively posting pictures on Facebook and on Shutterfly, so maybe I will start writing about our day to day here and still sending all our pictures out! My heart hurts that I have so many people I love in so many places and they don't get to live with us as Grayson grows. Watching him change is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. I just wish I had all my best friends here to share it with me.

So not sure what will end up out here. It could be really boring, or I might be interesting sometimes. I will never be as funny as Brittany Stapf, but I can try.

could I be more tired?

2008-05-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

Staying at home and not sleeping was one thing, but not sleeping and working 60 hours a week is something totally different! I have a new respect for REM sleep! As I add up the hours of sleep each night I consistently hit 6 to 7 hours of sleep, not bad right? Well think again. When those hours come in one and half to two hour chunks, it seems that I never hit a deep sleep cycle. In the midst of pre-summer prep. and replacing 1000's of feet of zip line, building trails and many other things, I have barely been able to function after 5:30 p.m. Miriam has been very gracious and lately has not been waking me up for all of the late night/early morning feedings and changings. I do participate in a few, but not all as of late.

Everyday I become more aware of my need for separation. Separation of work and home life. Home life has changed (that is an understatement), it requires more, more energy, more time, and it requires leaving work at work and focusing on family at home and getting rest at home.

Before now I have always felt like part of a couple, now I feel like part of a family.

I am looking forward to summer, it seems to be the season that I live for, it is also the season that each year almost kills me, but it is also the season that keeps me going the rest of the year. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel is good, but there is a light at the end. Sharing our new family member with our families, and unwinding at the Outer Banks of NC, fishing with some of the greatest men I know. Fall fishing and fellowship at the Outer Banks is almost enough to keep you going the rest of the year.

Monday is "go time"! The normal expectation is to resurface after summer. I hope and pray that is not true, I hope the summer is filled with many Climbing trips, afternoons at Flag Brewing Co., picking up of the Fratelli Bat phone, and creek n' canyon adventures.

The Offners are three!

2008-05-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

After much anticipation Grayson Barlow Offner entered our world on April 17th! The little guy came a week early and caught us totally off guard. He came right after Miriam's last day of work which didn't leave her with much time to rest and relax before the due date. Everything went extremely well, we could not have asked for the birth to have gone better. It was the most incredible and surreal day of my life. That Thursday left me in awe of how we are created. As if the miracle of a child growing inside of a woman isn't enough, the passage into our world is equally amazing. How someone can witness or participate in the birth of a child and not be convinced that we are created, that none of this happens by chance, that we are the product of intelligent design, is beyond me. Our bodies are amazing! Our family just grew 50%, we have created another human, wow! We are forever changed. It is an incredible feeling to love some one who you have never met, so much.

Grayson and Miriam came home just 6 hours after the birth, our midwives were pleased with Miriam and the baby's condition that they had us take a nap at their house and had us hit the road when we woke up. It was so great to be at home in our bed that night after having been awake for 36 hours. (Thank you Grayson for starting your journey out of the womb just after we went to bed :) How bizarre is it to leave your house without a child and return home 15 hours later with a son? It seemed crazy that they allowed us to take him home, with no instruction booklet! He is ours, ours to keep, to take care of, to raise...overwhelming.

Thank goodness for family! Jan, Miriam's mom, booked her flight within hours of Miriam going into Labor. She had previously booked a flight for a week and a half after the due date, but once Grayson decided to come early, Jan decided that there was no way she was going to wait two to three weeks to come and see her first Grandchild. Man are we glad she moved her flight, Jan was a huge help. She freed us up to soak up the first two weeks with our son, and not worry about things like laundry and what we were going to eat. We were so tired, we probably would have just eaten frozen pizza and eggo waffles for a week.

Life is different, life is hard, but life is good. Now if we can just make it till Grandma Offner "Glam-ma" makes it here next month we'll be okay.