AKA my Bacon Cheese Burger (B.C.B.) Brycen, the one who made me Auntie KK! This spunky dude has a very special place in my heart and always will! He is the sweetest lil guy who protects his Momma and Brynleigh Mae, is his daddy’s sidekick and adores the mess out of my Jax! The BIG 3 this year! He loves playing pretend play, making “potions” and riding his tractor in the back yard. Even though some days it’s a hit or miss if I’m getting a hug or selfie with you I know you love me just as much as I do you! Well…. maybe not as much I love you more so ha! I can’t wait to watch you and the other goobs grow into amazing little people! “You are a delight to watch, pure bliss to experience and joy to behold!” Happy Birthday big boy!
Happy 10th Birthday Pumpkin Head! I cannot believe it! My firstborn is 10 years old today! Gosh time really does fly by when you’re having fun.. She has amazed me from day one! I remember the night before she was due, a Sunday, we were watching the movie “I Love you Beth Cooper” and Jason said “Ok get to something and make this baby come I’m not going to work tomorrow!” So I got my big preggo self up and “ran” up and down the stairs lol! Maybe my 3rd-5th time up and down I had to go to the restroom- you know all that bouncing up and down on my bladder man… I honestly didn’t think anything of it, but as soon I sat down BAM! water broke! (TMI Sorry!) Things went great- it was a very smooth and easy delivery. On July 26th 2010 at 7:29 am our beautiful baby was born! Brayklee Emerson Roncek, weighing in at 7lbs 11.9 ounces and 20.5 in long! I can remember not knowing any details of her but trying to see the scale when they were finishing up with me and all I saw was 11.9. I almost freaked thinking she was an 11lb baby!! Big babies run in my family and hey it was my first I didn’t know hat to expect! She was perfect!
Every day since then has been such a blessing and adventure! She is the most caring, smartest, loving little girl I know-well besides my JayceeRae- I have been blessed three times with the most amazing kiddos! She is what you would call a Kidpreneur for sure! She has such big ideas already, I cannot wait to see when she gets older and really puts her imagination to work. We are so proud of her. I’m so glad the Lord made me her mom, we have a bond like no other- poor kid is just like me but at the same time just like her daddy its crazy. I miss her being a baby, but she will always be MY baby. At the same time I wish she could stay young forever, but I really look forward to the years coming. I hope she knows we love her to the moon and back and that she means the world to us.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard…”
Winnie the Pooh
Today is June 7th, 2020. Granddaddy would have been 80 today! I miss that man so much. He was such a proud husband, father, GRANDDADDY, and pops. He loved his family so much, no matter where he went he always shared something about his family to someone. He knew just how many of us there are too, I still have to count who’s who and how many! Anything good we had going on in our life it was because of him ;-). We look good….because He made us lol… We have good jobs…because He told us…We made pretty babies… because again, it’s in his genes. He was so silly, and took credit any time he could. I still dream and think of him so very often. You know the saying if you see a red cardinal it’s someone from heaven visiting? Well we see them all over and the kids will smile real big and say “Pops came by today!”, “Hi Pops!”, “I saw Pops today!”, or I like it when I see multiple red birds… I always say “Granddaddy is showing us off again” I know he would be just as excited as I am about building our new home. I know he would be up there every chance he got just to check on the builders to make sure they are doing their job the right way, or to tell them how he use to build windows and doors and the projects he built. God, I really miss him. To celebrate him today I took the kids by Krispy Kreme, he loved KK donuts, and then went to visit his resting place. The kids and I shared stories and memories about him, ate too many donuts and just remembered him. OH! and we also left a star balloon that we signed (red of course) in his flowers. On the way back to the car I glanced up in the tree by his grave and guess what was there… a frog wind chime. He loved frogs for those who didn’t know… I wasn’t sure if Grannie hung it or not but thought it was super cool. Come to find out she didn’t by the way and it made it even more cool. Coincidences like this happen ALL THE TIME- I could already write a book about the little signs of Granddaddy; and I absolutely love it. I shouldn’t be surprised though… He’s not going to let us forget he’s always watching over us. Happy Birthday Granddaddy.
This weekend we celebrated my Grannie’s 75th birthday! We would have had a bigger celebration if we were able to do more but with the world still “closed” from Covid-19 we just had cake and visited with her. I made her favorite per mom’s request a coconut creme poke cake. I think she had a good time, she was able to see almost all her babies and that always makes her happy. For one of her gifts, Jason and I put together a picture that said “Happy Birthday Grannie”. I think she loved it! I was very happy with it! I was able to get everyone to decorate a letter, take a picture of them holding it and then Jason put it together and we framed it in of course her favorite colored, yellow!
Grannie Filyaw is an amazing grandmother and always wants to do and take care of her babies. She has given us all our own special nicknames. I’m her Sweetheart, and my kiddos are Angel, Kitten and Little Fella. Any time we go visit she always tried to have a favorite snacks. When I was younger she would stock beefaroni and chicken noodle soup any time my cousin and I stayed. For my kids its banana popsicles and sugar popcorn. She makes the best and most comfortable pallets. I believe she is where I got my love of jewelry from, I can remember sitting on her lap in her chair and putting every ring on off her and twisting her bracelets, I swore she wore a ring on every finger. My Pop’s always had her set on jewelry, something new for every occasion- that’s the other gift I gave her for her birthday, but I can’t say what it is because she hasn’t received it yet- stupid mail- Well here’s to 75 years, 900 months, 27394 days, 657456 hours of being awesome and lots more to go!! Happy Birthday Grannie, we love you more than you can ever day, so ha!
Yep, that’s right, I baked a cake today in my air fryer!
This morning we were under a Tornado Watch with confirmed siting- oh yea 2020- Covid-19 isn’t enough we’re going to throw a tornado at ya -thaaanks- We were ok, but bless those who weren’t- It did cause some damage though, messed up our garage door opener, stove, a tv and R oku. Nothing that can’t be fixed or replaced, so thank you Lord. However, do you know what day it is? April 13th, and what is April 13th- My Hubby’s Birthday!! Happy Birthday Jason!!! Now how in the world am I suppose to bake a cake without an oven??? I don’t have a conventional oven/microwave, I don’t have a toaster oven, we’re supposed to be social distancing so I really don’t want to go buy a cake… So what do I do? Look up “How to cook a cake in the instant pot or air fryer”- I’ve seen them in the past but never tried it all the posts I found showed using spring form pans and I didn’t have that either, but I was determined to make this man a cake so I just went for it! It actually turned out great! Maybe even better than some of my past cakes! Y’all… even Jax ate some and you know he’s picky when it comes to sweets-
Here’s what I did:
INGREDIENTS
1 18.25 oz box of cake mix any flavor- Jason’s favorite is Funfetti
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup of water
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix ingredients together.
Using non-stick cooking spray, spray an air fryer safe pan
Then set the air fryer safe pan with the cake mix inside of it into the air fryer. (I split the batter up to make 2 layers) Set the time for 20 minutes at 320 degrees F.
After cake is done pull the cake out and let rest of the counter, for frosting/decoration.
Top with your favorite frosting! Jason’s was Rainbow Chip
Easter is probably one of my favorite holidays,the significance it holds for me as a Christian, and it’s also usually spent with my dear loved ones. We get all dressed up in our color coordinated Sunday best and attend morning Sunrise service- We eat some of the most delicious food-that we’ve all spent way too much time on just to gobble it up in minutes, hunting Easter eggs- watching the kiddos race egg to egg with glee on their faces wondering what may be in their eggs, coloring Easter eggs, and just spending quality time, sippin’ sweet tea talking about life together. It is the day we remember the rising of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s the day he conquered the grave, saved us from our sins and gave meaning to our world. Without this all the rest of it would be meaningless.
Today was just a little different. He is STILL Risen, and I still spent quality time with the most important people in my life. It’s just instead of getting all dressed up I wore leggings, t-shirt and a baseball cap. Instead of going to sunrise service I watched my wonderful pastor deliver a powerful message online, the kiddos watched their Sunday school lesson while Jason and I hid eggs, but my parents, Rhanda and her little family, My grandparents, Uncles/Aunts, cousins weren’t here. We did get to video chat with a few of them but not being able to see them just wasn’t the same. I missed them.
We still had a great time though, the kiddos loved their Easter Baskets! The girls did dress up a little- they wore the Easter dresses I bought for them, but forget shoes or doing their hair lol! The kiddos hunted for eggs-Brayklee found the most, then JayceeRae and then Jax. They each found a golden egg with a whopping $5. I also put a few “coupons” in them for when the “Social Distancing” is over they can use, such as 1 free donut, 1 Ice cream truck treat and lunch date with me, and I had a few fun ones for during the quarantine like- You choose the movie for Family Movie Night, 15 mins extra screen time and sleep on the air mattress! For dinner I made a Maple Spiral Ham- JayceeRae was most excited about the ham, homemade mac and cheese which I think was Jason and Brayklee’s fave, roasted zucchini and onions, corn on the cob and cornbread which was Jaxon’s favorite part. It was super yummy- everyone even got seconds and that doesn’t happen often with these picky eaters of mine. I missed getting some of Grannie’s chicken salad/ potato salad and Mamma’s dirty rice though- oh and her baked beans would have hit the spot! For dessert we has K Dulce Cookies that were delish!!
After dinner we called Jason’s Mom, Dad and Derrek, they are doing well just bored with this quarantine- We miss them- they were supposed to come up in March, but weren’t able to. Then we called my Grandma and Granddaddy- who are also over the quarantine! Later the kiddos played with their goodies the Easter Bunny brought and Jason and I spent the rest of the night watching a movie (The Platform- weird movie) and Ozark.
Overall it was a really nice Easter Sunday, just a little quieter. Now to get ready for Jason’s birthday tomorrow and the start of Spring Break!
Today was the day we had our field trip to Cypress Gardens! I decorated the table area, we had Lucky Charm Butterflies, watched The Magic School Bus “Get Swamped” and “Get Planted”, painted mini pots to start our seed planting and made bird feeders!
I told them about the birds we may have seen such as:
Ruby-crowned Kinglets
Hermit Thrushes
Solitary Warbler
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
Hooded Warblers
Red-eyed Vireos
Yellow-throated Vireos
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds ** Our Favorite**
We looked through the gallery at some of the plants and tree we may have seen:
Dogwoods ** Our Favorite**
Native Iris
Southern Blue Flag
Dwarf Azalea
Southern Arrowwood
Tulip Tree
And of course we learned about my favorite… BUTTERFLIES!! We went over the life-cycle and the anatomy of both a caterpillar and butterfly . We can’t wait to visit Cypress Garden’s Butterfly House as soon as they open back up.
Rice Cake and TP Roll Bird Feeders
Materials needed: rice cake, empty TP roll, peanut butter, yarn or pipe cleaner, birdseed (thankful for a neighbor bc I forgot to pick some up!), scissors, spoon, skewer, ziploc bag or bowl
Poke a hole through the rice cake/ sides on toilet paper roll with a skewer.
Smear peanut butter on rice cake/ TP roll (remember where you put the hole)
Drop it in a bowl or bag of birdseed and evenly coat it
Insert a pipe cleaner or yarn through the hole and make a loop
Hang up outside and wait
My dad also surprised us and sent McDonald’s for lunch via my Mom, so we took it out back and had a picnic lunch, today was nice.
Today we celebrate ten beautiful years of marriage (almost 12 years together). I am in disbelief that the time has passed so quickly, and yet I can think back and see how full these ten years have been. Here’s a little walk down memory lane…
We met at work, noticed each other walking by but officially met during a fire drill through a mutual friend “Luis”. For the next few months, we built a strong friendship, which eventually turned into a relationship; took longer than I wanted lol, but we have been inseparable ever since. Our big thing then was dancing, movies, music and Halloween
Jason proposed to me New Year’s Eve and by the following April we were married on beautiful Sullivan’s Island. We were surrounding by all our family and friends and it was a wonderful time shared. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I’ll never forget all the detail put in it.
We built our first home together and welcomed our first goober in July 2010, Brayklee Emerson. She was everything first time parents could hope for! The sweetest, most beautiful perfect little angel.
Before too long, we welcomed another sassy little goob into the crew — JayceeRae Belen, we found out quick that she was our firecracker! Full of spunk, sass and new adventure- oh and colic! But she was another grand blessing and we love her so much!
Three years passed after JayceeRae, and we welcomed Jaxon Sullivan home, our boy! 5 years married and we had already gone through getting married, building a home, and having 3 goobers… wow that is a lot… What were we thinking? I know I was thinking “My life is so blessed, and I couldn’t be any happier than I am right now!” I thank God daily for what he has given us.
And here we are. It’s been a great decade together, full of the ups and downs of life —three children, one pup, remember the Sugar Gliders? WHAT IN THE WORLD! LOL the never dying fish, our inside jokes, door-slamming fights, fast passing in Disney, sleepless nights, loss of loved ones, family bike rides, TDYs, tears in each other’s arms, movies nights, Halloween, mountain trips, drinking wine and butterscotch Moonshine, Hilton Head getaways, repeated stories, Friday night date nights. Makes me wonder what the next 10 years will bring.
At the end of the day, needless to say, marriage isn’t always easy. You’re two humans living together and no matter who you’re with, it’s going to be hard sometimes, right? But there’s no one else I’d want to do this crazy thing called life with. I’ve read “Everyone you date or marry is going to be insane. You just have to choose the form of insanity that works for you.” And our brands of crazy, luckily, seem to fit. This Kind of Love it’s what I dreamed about. Happy ten Goobercakes IJLU
The terds! Brayklee beat me this April Fool’s. I woke up this morning and half asleep, I’m making my way to the coffee maker..and splat! I ran right into a plastic wrapped doorway! I giggle and head downstairs to sneak my prank in- I was going to tape one of Jaxon’s play gun to the milk and make it have mean face and tell them I think the milks gone “bad” and to my surprise… GOOGLY EYEBALLS on everything! All the condiments, the butter, the drinks, leftovers, milk, OJ- you name it LOL!! It was hilarious!! Brayklee got JayceeRae by putting jelly in her powered donut, JRae was not a huge fan haha. Later that morning I go to the restroom and try to wash my hands, there’s tape on the faucet and I get splashed! Brayklee sneezed on Jason and sprayed the water bottle at the same time- that was a good one! JayceeRae got us by putting chocolate peanut butter spread on the back of the toilet seat…ewww…grosss! but still funny! Later I go to turn on the tv and the terd did it again…. took my batteries! I really need to step up my game next year. So far I have only given Brayklee a frozen cup of Chocolate milk… tonight we’re having mashed potato sundaes, but I don’t know what else I’m going to do….
Do you like playing little pranks on your kiddos? I do!! Nothing scary or pretending to be hurt, just something super cheesy and cute- for those you know me know I am a PUNNY person! These are two April Fools pranks I have done to the goobers in the past- Made them “BrownEs” for dessert and “Cupcakes” for Dinner. I’m not sure what I’m going to do this year… do you have any ideas? Come back to see what I decided on… feel free to use these ideas if you want to play the prank as well. Be sure to let me know how it went if you do!
Cupcakes for dinner were really meatloaf and mashed potatoes! Don’t forget the cheese sprinkles! I made individual meatloaves in the cupcake pan, then topped with mashed potatoes using a piping bag- be sure to let the mashies cool before piping! I learned the hard way ha..ha..
