Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Under Construction

My blog is definitely under construction right now. I'm trying to figure out why there is this Pyzam error on top and I'm also trying to use different layout from The Cutest Blog On The Block instead of Pyzam. I've just run out of time and the boys are waking up from their naps.
Do you like the new name though? I was looking back through pass blog headers I've made and I had put that title under a picture of the boys together. I thought it was quite fitting.

Someone's Missing

I can't believe it's been exactly a year since my Grandpa (Peepaw) suffered a stroke and ultimately died from it on October 5th. Life just goes on and goes fast!
I miss him so much! I miss his laugh and his stories. I miss his hugs and him telling me he loves me. It's really weird knowing that Grandpa will never know Ella....at least here on earth. He was only here for 4 months of Jack's life so Jack will never remember him. Owen hasn't talked about Peepaw in a while either so it's sad to think that he probably won't remember him either. All of our kids are going to miss out on knowing a wonderfully amazing man.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cha Cha Cha Changes!

With the news that we will now be added a girl to our brood...my blog will have to undergo a name change. Michael and I have tried to come up with some clever new titles, but nothing really sounds right. I'm wondering if you have any suggestion for me. Go ahead and comment and let me know. I want to change my background and header soon so maybe I'll choose your title. Put your thinking caps on and get to work...please :)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Think Pink!

It's a healthy baby girl!!!

I love this shot of her cute profile and her little hand by her head. Her profile picture reminds Michael and me of Owen's. I can't wait to see what she looks like.

Here's her little foot. She was pretty still for most the ultrasound, but towards the end she started doing summersaults. So that's what I've been feeling! :)


I am 17 weeks 5 days today! I kept up with my tradition of wearing the color for the sex that Michael thinks we were having. For Owen's ultrasound I wore pink even though I totally knew he was a boy. For Jack's ultrasound Michael thought he was a boy and I swore he was a girl, but I wore blue and he was right. This time Michael was sure it was another boy and I really wasn't sure either way, but I wore blue to keep up with the theme. Can you tell I like traditions and themes?


Thank you for all your wonderful name suggestions, but we just fell in love with Ella Grace so that's our beauty's name! Tonight we had my parents over for dinner to tell them the news and this sign is how we did it. We had it covered up by another piece of paper and then we let Owen pull it down.


This was their reaction! They were so sure we were going to have another boy, but they were SO hoping for a girl. They both got teary eyed. Ella is going to be one spoiled I mean...well loved little girl.

After telling Mom and Dad I spent lots of time on the phone calling our other family and friends letting them know the good news.



When we were done eating dinner just hanging out in the kitchen chatting I noticed this was what Owen was doing. He was watching Cars....surprise, surprise!!! This news of a girl came as no surprise to him because ever since we've been talking to him about the baby he's always said that Mama's baby was a girl or a sister. He's never once said it was boy. Tonight when I asked if he knew we were having a baby girl he said, "Yeah"! He said it in this really high excited voice...it was so cute.


Here's our family of 5...that's so weird to say! I'm so excited!!! So I'm curious who was right when it came to the voting? Did you vote for a girl?

Talking Back

A certain 2 1/2 year old at our house has joined the band wagon of other 2 1/2 year olds and is now talking back. Oh the joys of always having to be on your toes! :) His favorite thing to say now when he doesn't want to hear what I have to say is to say, "Mama, no talk to Owen!" Oh that that hits a nerve with me! OH!!!!
I have tried various things like informing him that he is not allowed to talk to Mama like that and it's unacceptable behavior. I've also put him in time out when he's talked sassy to me and a few times I've bopped him in the mouth if he's really yelled at me if he didn't like what I was doing. I really don't like that one though because instead of teaching him anything I think the bopping on his mouth really hurts his feelings more than anything and I don't want him to feel hurt in his heart because of something I've done. It makes me sad just thinking about it. I know that he's in the process of learning to express himself more with words and I just need to help him learn what's appropriate and what's not. Since this it my firstborn and I've never dealt with this before I was wondering if other more experienced moms out there have any advise or insight on how to deal with this. Which techniques and punishments worked for you? Did you read any books that helped?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Real Life

Pretty good picture of the boys and I...Owen is in the process of saying, "Cheese" so that's why his mouth looks funny, but overall a pretty good picture.
The real life picture...Owen making some freaky face and me getting hit in the face by Jack. He's really going through a hitting phase and we're working on putting a stop to it, but he is one stubborn kid.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Cowboy Boots

Back in July Ga-Ga & Pa went on vacation and they picked up these cute cowboy boot slippers for the boys. Since it's been so hot this summer we haven't really used them yet. Friday was really the first time either Owen or Jack had even paid attention to them. So I decided to put them on both the boys and have a little photo session.

I love how the bottoms have horse shoes on them. They are also labeled so you know which is the left and which is the right.


Here's a close up shot of Jack's boots.

Owen is such a cheese ball right now. He loves to make these silly smiley faces and then see them afterwards.


Here's a close up of the cowboy on the side of Owen's boots. It looks just like the cowboy on the Wyoming license plate.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Caught Chocolate Handed

The source!

The evidence!

Guilty!

Murphy

Murphy is the name of the ceramic dog that is at Ga-Ga & Pa's house. Pa bought it for Ga-Ga when they were living in Germany during their first married Christmas together in 1971. That's one old dog! Murphy has lived (not unscathed) through lots of kids. He just draws kids to him with his cute sad look as he sits across the room. He just beckons them to come kiss him....

And of course the boys do just that!

If you click on this picture you will see Murphy's repair job that my mom did on his front left arm. Not sure how that happened. One memory I have of Murphy is that somehow a ping pong ball got stuck up inside him...you know how ceramic things have a hole in the bottom of them. I'm not sure if it was my brother or me that stuck it up there, but it was there for years. Eventually we finally got it out, but I remember being sad about it because it had been there for so long it had become a part of him. I know I'm weird!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Farm Failure

Okay...Okay I failed!!! I admit it! No excuses....I just got lazy and didn't want to water my garden. The poor thing dried up in about...oh 4 days! On Monday night Michael picked all my corn and my tomato plants and put them in the yard waste bid. We did use a bunch of the stuff we grew, but in the end I wasn't even sure the corn was going to be edible. Once Michael started pulling them up I opened the corn and most of it wasn't developing right. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Also I planted my tomato plants in WAY too small of containers. Michael said when he pulled them out it came in one big chunk and it was all roots. Poor things! I've learned a lot this year so next years garden will be better. First thing I'm going to buy is an watering system....I hate watering my garden.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Mama's Boys

My boys....oh how I love them and oh how I'm trying to raise them to be strong independent young men. Lately the boys have both really struggled with separation anxiety unless they are left with Daddy or Ga-Ga & Pa. Other than that they both become very emotional about Mama leaving. With MOPS starting up recently and us trying to make it to church on a more regular basis this has definitely put a damper on things for Mama. On Sunday I tried staying in the nursery and playing with them for a while before I left so it wasn't such a shock, but it totally backfired. I think I got to sing one song before the nursery coordinator (my good friend Lori) came walking out holding Owen by the hand and Jack in her arms. They were both a mess!
So my fellow moms have you ever gone through the same situation? Do you have any pointers? This summer I have spent a ton of time with the boys and since I'm a SAHM I don't really leave them that often. I'm hoping this is just an phase and once they've been put in the nursery a few more times they will get used to it. One thing I've tried to help them understand is that even though Mama leaves I always come back.

Monkey Man

After getting all wet by the new sprinkler I just striped Jack down to his diaper (his favorite outfit) and let him run around.
I could just kiss that cuteness all day!

Jack is such a climber. He not only knows how to go up the stairs...he can go down now. Such a blessing. We hardly ever had to worry about shutting the baby gate anymore. He also knows how to climb up on the stool that we have in the bathroom and he basically hangs from the pedestal sink by his arms. He also loves to step on the back of Owen's McQueen couch and try to get up in the window. I'm sure he'll figure out how to get on the real couch before too long. In this picture he's standing on the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn chair that I put in the playhouse that's outside. He was actually trying to climb through this open window, but never quite made it.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Heartbreaking

Please take some time to pray for this family...Sara was called home to heaven far too soon and her husband of 5 years will now be raising their newborn baby Chloe without her. I don't know why this happens and why God allows it, but Brady sure does have a wonderful attitude about it. I'm sure he's breaking inside though.

Showers of Petals Or Petals of Showers

On Friday the boys and I headed to Winco to get a few things. Of course they have those carts in the front with all the seasonal stuff that is discounted and I just couldn't resist this cute flower sprinkler for a whopping $3!
I actually got this mower for Owen back before Jack was even born at Winco too. It only cost $6 and they play with it all the time. In this picture Owen is trying to wash the mower off.

Jack got soaking wet!

The pans...we love pans! Thankfully I have old ones I don't really care about so we just leave them outside so the boys can play with them anytime they want.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Puyallup Fair

We have gone to the Puyallup Fair every year since having kids. Before that I don't think I had been since I was 19. The Fair wasn't really my thing...it's expensive, you have to pay to park and the traffic and crowds just didn't excite me. Now that we have kids though it's so much fun to see the joy in their eyes and experience things from their level.
For the last two years we've gone with our friend's Micah and Kim, but since we've had such a limited amount of time to spend as a family we decided that the 4 of us should just go and have some special family time. Thankfully we did not have a repeat of last year and the weather was perfect!!! It's hard to believe this was Owen's third time at the fair and well...Jack's third time as well since I was pregnant with him the first time we took Owen.

Michael wore Owen in the backpack for the beginning half of the day and Jack rode in the stroller, but halfway through we switched them around.


Owen and Jack love animals so we knew we'd have to spend a good amount of time checking them out up close.

This pig was certain he could escape if he just worked on that latch a little bit longer.


I had seen picture from another friend who had gone to the fair that there was a mama pig and piglets so I knew I wanted to see them.

Oh my goodness...those cute little piggies!!! There was actually two mama pigs one with a litter that was 2 days old and the other was 3 days old.


There was another fair goer that was checking out the piglets and he started naming them....bacon, ham and pork chop!!! It's funny, but at the same time not. They are too cute to think that they might end up as food.

Owen just kept saying the llamas were "So Messy" because they all had hay on their heads.


That is one very big and we think pregnant cow!

This made me laugh!


After lunch I saw that there was a free face painting booth so I took the boys to get sharks put on their faces. Jack did really great, but I was by myself since Michael was taking Owen to the bathroom so I couldn't hold him and get pictures at the same time.

Owen didn't really like the feel of the air on his face so he wouldn't let her finish the shark by putting sunglasses on him, but it still looks cute.

Here's what it was supposed to look like. That's one stylin' shark!


We weren't sure if Owen was going to want to go on the rides, but the more he saw them he kept asking to go so we bought 20 tickets (way more expensive than I remember them being when I was little) and set out on an adventure. There was this fire truck that immediately caught Owen's eye. He was barely tall enough and I wasn't sure he would like it, but he ended up having a great time.

Michael took this awesome picture of me and Owen. I love it....he was so happy that mommy was sharing in this moment with him. He's getting so big!!!


We got really high! ;) The operator was really fun too because he ran the ride forward and then backwards and then he brought it down and we thought it was over, but then at the last minute he made us go back up. That made Owen laugh so hard!

All done! Once the ride stopped the operator opened the doors for us and Owen immediately grabbed the door and shut it and said, "Again!" It was so funny! I wanted him to try a few more rides since there were so many to choose from and I really did need to go on this ride with him and I didn't want to waste 4 more tickets on me riding the ride.

The next ride was another fire truck...this one just went around and around. He was so focused on the ride that he didn't even notice us until the last 3 turns and then he was all smiles and waves.

Then Owen spotted the cars!!!
I was too tall to go on these with him and he couldn't go by himself. He ended up riding on this twice and both times in the pink car with a girl driving him around.


This is how he looked the whole time. Just chillin' out, enjoyin' the ride! He never once touched the steering wheel.


Almost done...he did really good once we were out of tickets. I thought he would have a major meltdown, but I think he was done. Next year we are going to go during the week so we can buy the dizzy passes and go on as many rides as we want. This year Jack was too young and too short, but next year I'm sure he will love getting in on the action.

Of course we didn't go to the fair and not having any yummy food. That's an attraction all in it's own. For lunch I had a super yummy Chicken Gyro and Michael had a Fire Roasted Corn on the Cob. We brought snacks from home for the boys. For dessert we had to get an Elephant Ear.

Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmm!!!!


After eating our dessert we headed to the vendors so I could buy a Super Shammy and then it was time to go home. We were only there for 3 1/2 hours, but with two boys that were way overdue for their naps that was pretty good. The boys really did great and we can't wait to go next year.