week in review

so i've already slacked off on blogging i know! i'm a work in progress what can i say.....


some random pics from the week:

connor has mastered thumb sucking--positive is he sucks his thumb and goes back to sleep; negative is i'm NOT looking forward to breaking this habit. the paci was easy, you just start cutting it off. can't really do that with an appendage :-)

parker is a dancing machine. ladies he's got some great moves!

we had our friends the cramers over monday night for burritos. this is kate, parker's girlfriend and if everything goes as planned, they will get married in 20 some years:

and this is her little sister elle 9with mom allie), elle is a perfect older woman for connor :-)

brandon and chris with the tiniest tinys...

connor lovin' his toes....

as a food allergy mama i get to make the baked goods for class parties. these were egg-free cookies for parker's "orange" party

i LOVE my relatively new vera bag. i switched to this for my fall diaper bag and la-huv it!

pumpkin patch

yesterday we had a blast at the pumpkin patch with our lifegroup from church. it was a bit chilly but the kids had a great time picking out pumpkins, playing in the maze and petting the farm animals.

connor all bundled up!

driving the tractor.......

feeding the goats......

pointing at something.......

LOVE this sweet little face :-)

picking out our pumpkins

connor loved watching all the action, but at this point he passed out

not sure why he's making this face but at least he's looking at the camera!

parker totally passed out on the way home!

we came home and watched football and i passed out on the couch--i was exhausted! then i went to lifegroup at night while brandon stayed with the munchkins. we had a great conversation about venting vs. slander. gossip was defined as "anything that would make someone think less of the person you are talking about". i never thought that i was much of one to gossip, and i always try to avoid it, but i learned last night that i have been at times without even realizing it....definitely need to be working on this as we learned just how damaging words can be.

starbucks, home depot and pedicures

we have been livin' it up today! we started our morning with a starbucks run and the hit up the depot to get some new filters and other small home improvement items and the best part of the day so far (besides having brandon home on a saturday) is THIS:

these bad boys haven't been touched professionally in a LONG time. i love getting pedicures but never take or make the time to get them plus i'm cheap. but i had a gift certificate brandon gave me from valentines day so it was nice to get out and have an hour for myself. i had the hardest time picking out a color...i wanted something fall, but i'm so out of touch with what's "in" these days. i know that black is in, (or was recently in and maybe now out???) but with my iridescent coloring, i don't think i could pull it off. but then i started wondering if nail polish comes in chocolate brown? i LOVE chocolate brown....so going to look for this the next time i hit up tar-jay.

right now both kiddos are sleeping (YAY!) and b is attempting to put up blinds in our master bath. after the kids wake up we're going to hit the streets and take these two crazy dogs out for a walk:

bailey (who i fondly refer to as "old crochety" as she's getting in her prime) is our weimaraner and mollie is our labradoodle you can see in the background. these two definitely don't get as much attention as they used to........and i'm excited tonight because my good friend beth is home (she works for the nationals and travels with them all season) and she's coming to visit!

blah

today was such a blah day, especially for a friday. i'm feeling all out of sorts and just blah. i can't really explain it, maybe i'm just tired. i don't know. it definitely didn't help that i was up half the night because connor's been sick with a cold and just couldn't sleep (of course parker actually slept great and got up at 6:30!!!). poor little guy. when i changed his diaper this morning, he had this odd sort of peach colored "stuff" in his wet diaper that looked a little suspect. he had had it yesterday morning too. SO with the combination of a cold and a mysterious liquid in the diaper, i thought it warranted a trip to the doctor's office. glad i went as it turns out the peach stuff is nothing to worry about BUT connor does have his first ear infection. so off to tar-jay pharmacy we went and then i attempted to make myself feel better by suggesting five guys for dinner.


i love this new water paint book i got parker the other day...it has kept him entertained a lot today!

so serious and careful.....

and look at this sweet little face. you'd have no idea he was sick.......

morning ritual

just like parker's got his morning ritual these days of waking up at 4:55am (although today it was 4:45 BUT he did go back to sleep until 6 which i will TAKE!)

 i've got my morning ritual:

i have got to have my morning coffee or else it's just not pretty..........the sad thing is it's only decaf these days because of nursing BUT i'm still addicted. and for a little fun i've recently added an extra 20 calories to the mix with a little whipped cream on top. YUM! question :: does anyone know why the pumpkin spice creamer doesn't hit the shelves until november? ummmm hello halloween :: pumpkin :: pumpkin spice creamer. sounds like i need to contact their marketing department. and while i'm on the topic why is it that international delight creamer does not make my coffee creamy? they've got such great flavors and every 6 months or so i decide to give them another chance but i'm always disappointed. what's the deal???

early riser

i was totally blessed when connor slept through the night at 7 weeks and basically has been an INCREDIBLE sleeper ever since. little did i know that parker would revert back to newborn status at 2 and half years old. last night he was up at 1:00, 3:00 (and didn't fall back asleep until 3:30) and up for good at 5:30am. awesome. this usually means a LONG day for me with a very fussy two year old.

surprisingly, the morning went well with little to no fussiness from P. this was good for me because i was already stressed out about the birthday party they were having for a boy in parker's class and parker's whole egg allergy issue. but i sent him on his way with two very special EGG FREE cookies with icing and halloween sprinkles on top. i'm always worried that he'll feel left out and different, so i try to outdo the cookies all the other kids get and just make him feel extra special instead. icing and sprinkles usually do the trick!

here's a picture of an "airplane" parker drew before heading off to school. i LOVE this easel we just got from Ikea for $15!!!

poor connor gets woken up every morning from his nap to be put in his car seat when we take parker to preschool.

the day was going great until THIS:

somehow putting this plate of food on the table totally started a HUGE meltdown. huge tears and no words coming out meltdown. seriously, i know the fruit was canned just this ONE time (we pretty much always eat fresh).....still no clue why the meltdown. so i just ignored P and a few minutes later he sat down and ate the whole sandwhich. welcome to the terrible 2's!

and look who's got two new friends.......he wa telling them all sorts of stuff today!

finally got a pic of the boys in their other big/little brother outfits....love my boys!

off to put the kiddos to bed!

confessions of a blog stalker....

ok, so first i have a confession to make. i am a full blown blog stalker these days. there are a few blogs by other moms (people i don't even know in real life mind you) that i have no clue how i came across their blogs that i just love to read every single day. it's like reading a good book you just can't put down. i guess i find it comforting to know that the challenges i face are certainly not unique and it's fun to find humor in them. these blogs have been a source of encoragement to me and i love reading about how other moms spend their days, save money, discipline their children, etc. SO now that i've come clean about this little "problem", i've been inspired to do a better job blogging about my own life. being the OCD, detail-oriented person that i am, i'm constantly journaling and taking pictures of life moments so i will never forget them. this blog is mainly to serve me as a journal of my life, and i certainly don't expect you to care as much about all of the details i put on here. in the past i've blogged a few times a month just to post some pics of big events or milestones, but now i'm giving you a heads up that my plan is to post almost daily and if you care to follow along with me and my journey, hop on!

and so it begins........

29 months of parker!

my sweet baby boy is 29 months today!

dear parker,

you fill every day with lots of excitment (and exhaustion!)....it is never a dull moment at our house. the other day you decided you wanted to start the day at 1:45am! you got out of bed, turned your light on, turned the fan off (just like every morning) and were ready to go! you see each day filled with so many exciting adventures that you just love to get up early and by early i mean 4:55am on most days! here are some highlights of what you are up to these days:

~you LOVE preschool! you go three mornings a week and you just love it. the ride to school is always fun as you point out the boats, the waterfall and we get to your school you yell "school....i found it!"

~you LOVE your little brother. you are always concerned about him and you bring him toys to play with. today you were all excited because you were holding connor's hand...too cute!

~you are a dancing machine. you have this keyboard that plays beats and you dance and clap to it really well.....you've got great rhythm. a few weeks ago daddy got out his guitar and you were dancing around our bedroom.

~you are quite mr. independent. it's your way or no way. no clue where you got that from :-) for instance, you HAVE TO take off your own shoes and put them on the shelf. the other day you had a fit because i put your shoes on the shelf so you went and took them off the shelf, put them back on the steps in the garage where they were and then put them back on the shelf. seriously????

~potty training is still a challenge with #2. however i did have you motivated for a few days with this brightly colored, icing sprinkle cookies i found. for those few days i could not get you OUT of the bathroom. you literally spent all day in there with your magazine! unfortunately, those cookies lost their luster and are no longer motivating. aaaahhhhhhh.......one day you will be potty trained!!!!!

~i can't believe how much stuff you are learning. you pick up on things really well and i'm constantly amazed about the things you know. for instance, you know that fast and quick mean the same thing. you know that big and small are opposites and you know that big items are heavy. when we get packages inthe mail, you know you need to use scissors to open it. you are starting to learn your ABCs and love to point out the old favorite Letter E (not sure why this is such a fave maybe because "E is for Elmo"???) and "P is for Parker". you even call your pirate book your "P is for Parker" book because it has a "P" on it. you are also counting a lot these days but you like to skip #2 for some reason. you know #2, you just forget it when you count. colors are still a challenge for you but you're doing well with shapes--circles and triangles!

~this month you learned what pumpkins are and you love to point them out. you and i made pumpkin bread one day (egg free of course) and you LOVED IT. you had to have pumpkin bread every morning!

~funny words you are saying these days.....you like to add "g" to a lot of words :: "umgella" (umbrella), "guffins" (muffins) just to name two. you call the panthers either "golphins" (dolphins) or "panchers". you call batteries "bidamins" (vitamins). you say "screwbopper" for screwdriver.....and our favorite, you call grandpa "hee-haw"!!! that one totally cracks us up. you can say "gramps" but for some reason the extra syllable throws you off!

~you are my little helper! you like to clean up (thank you Lord!) and you will go get me diapers and burp cloths when i need them for connor.
parker, you bring us so much joy to each and every day. you keep us on our toes, but we love you more and more each day!

connor is 3 months!

my sweet little baby you are 3 months old! definitely no pretending you are a newborn anymore :-( this past month has been loads of fun with lots of new discoveries! you've got great head control now and can turn your head easily to see what's going on. you also got to try out your bumbo seat just last week and you LOVE it. you love to watch parker play and see what he's up to. your smiles are contagious and your giggles are hilarious. you're still tyring to find your voice so sometimes when you giggle it's really quiet and then all of the sudden this loud noise escapes surprising you...it's hilarious. you've also started with a "boo boo lip" when you get sad or upset. i haven't been able to catch that on camera yet. you love to grab things, mainly my shirt and fingers when you're eating, but the other day you discovered your toes!

overall you are a happy baby, although you insist on protesting every nap now. you cannot go to sleep with out a good 5-10  minute cry these days. i used to try and rock you, but you still cried, so i've found it best to just put you down in your crib and let you get it all out! as much as you love your thumb, you haven't figured out how to use it instead of crying to calm you down before naps. you've gotten pretty good at finding your thumb and strategically placing it in your mouth, whereas last month you just couldn't seem to keep it in there. you are also back to spitting up a lot again. we go through quite a few outfit changes every day...luckily you are a "happy spitter", in fact you often spit up because you are laughing!

this past week you've started going to bed around 7:15pm like your brother which mommy LOVES!!! you still eat 6 times a day, but i have a feeling you'll be dropping one of those feedings soon. your day time naps are all over the place as with parker in preschool we are always on the go and luckily you happily come along THANK GOODNESS! you still love your big brother and whenever he's around he instantly brings a smile to your face. you love it when mommy reads to you and sings you songs and you also like to watch tv with daddy which mommy is not happy about :-) this morning i caught you intently watching ESPN!

connor you are so much fun to spend each day with, although between you and your brother i am worn out these days. but it is so worth every minute i get to spend with you! love you!!!


your milestone bear pic at 3 months.....

you've figured out how to use your legs to bring the ball to your hands so you can grab it!

working hard at that thumb!

you LOVE bathtime!

trying out your bumbo seat....