Happy Birthday, Bruiser! (and the give away winner!)

This post is late - his birthday was last Thursday AND I was supposed to announce my drawing winner long before now, but other bloggy things took precedence this week, so I'm playing a bit of catch-me-up! I know some are waiting for the drawing winner but my recent birthday boy gets first turn this post.

2007 - around 2 or 3 years old

Our Bruiser is something else! As each day passes, he is working so hard to become a better boy than he already is: helping his sister learn her letters, working on keeping his areas picked up, etc. Of all the children, Bruiser has struggled most with leaving our last house and friends behind when we moved to Virginia. 

2009 - on a hike with friends

His best buddy up north was someone he could pal around with, dream with and build with. They were always coming into the back yard to find scrap wood or goodies to take back across the street and make some new contraption! So for his birthday this week, we took a two-day trip north for a visit. He stayed the night at his friend's house and had a ball. 

I did get a phone call from our renters at one point. She was calling to see if I was aware that the boys had gone to the old house to ask if they could play on the playset in the back yard! But otherwise, they made a cranberry cake, built things, and jumped right back into a friendship-interrupted. I am so glad they were able to do that! 

The best buddy

Bruiser... I hope in the next year you continue to grow into the strong, decent man you are becoming. You're only 8 right now, but your development into a man has already begun. Right now you favor activities that skew towards engineering; you work hard at being a leader and maybe try a little too hard to be in charge of the altar servers at church. You struggle some with your sense of what's "fair", but you're working on that. You wear a prayer bracelet every day to help remind you that Christ is always with us. I really want to find one that fits you better, because it helps. 

2012 - first baseball team

I've had to learn a lot in how to teach you. Physical disciplines aren't so great for you; shouting is a miserable failure! (HA!) Sending you off to a corner or room to be alone for a minute works better than anything else. Once you're calm, pulling you close into a hug helps a lot. You need a lot of time
 with your Legos and moving and sports. Sometimes I've worried a little about your reading being a little slow. But I haven't pushed it much - trying something new I suppose (sorry, Pop!) Lo and behold, I see your reading improving without my pushing on it. I see you trying to read signs and boxes more, looking at harder library books and last Sunday at church, you were studying the prayer book pretty closely. I'm so impressed with you!

I love where you've come from and look forward to the days to come. As we took a 3 mile walk today, I was so happy to get to be with all five of you, watching you joke and josh with your older brothers, and help with the youngers. Thank you for being you.

Love,

Mama

And the Winner Is....

Two or three posts back I said I was doing a drawing and giving out a box of goodies to one of my followers if we reached a certain number of followers. I'm so excited to get to send out such my boxes of nuts, cocoas and cards! As promised, each follower had his or her name dropped into a hat that I am crocheting for a little boy's gift.

And Buttercup pulled the name out...




Here is what our lucky winner - STEPHANIE - will receive in the mail:

A tin of Sweet Vanilla Pecans, a jar of Peppermint Mocha Hot Cocoa Mix (which will be offered on the Cocoa Nutty Goodies Page starting tomorrow!), and two super cute hand made cards!

As promised, a deployed service member will receive a little box of goodies too! In that box will be the nuts, the cocoa mix and a hand made card saying "Thank you"!

Thank you all for being here! I am having a great time building up my blog, trying some new things out and encouraging and inspiring my kids along the way. I hope you'll stick around and see what else is coming for 2013 - there are quite a few new things in store for my little blog!

Tillie