...on snapshots of my day

Lately things around here look a little, well...messy.  A little out of control.  Somewhat unorganized.  I don't want to say that we are in "survival mode" because overall things are going well.  I will say, however, that life with two kiddos is a little more messy than life with only one. 

Even so, these are my babies-my tiny little loves.  

...on three months

This little guy is three months old today.  He's mostly smiles and spit up and we just love him to pieces.  

Jackson has taken to calling him "Quinny" all on his own.  So, as you can imagine, we now find ourselves calling him Quinny too.  

Tonight we bundled up to play outside for a few minutes.  This is the warmest thing we have for Quinn-I guess it's a little big.  

...on little updates

Whelp, I have finally mustered up enough inspiration (and time) to blog.  I probably should post something about thanksgiving but I really don't feel like writing about that right now.  And, of course, the second I sit down to actually write out some of my recent thoughts my mind goes blank.  It's kind of like when you go to the grocery store and you have a mental list but the second you walk in the store your mind goes blank.  "Wait, what was I getting here again?"

Not much is new around here.  Turns out life with three boys is actually quite fun.



It can get kind of smelly from time to time but, what can you do?  Speaking of smelly-i'm slowly working up the courage to start potty training Jackson.  I refuse to be one of those parents with a 3 1/2 year old kid who is not yet potty trained.  As someone very wise once told me, at some point it stops being poop and it's just s*@t.  Truth.  I'm either going to start next week or mid January-we'll see.

So, i've started back to the gym.  I guess that is new.  I have only been back a hand full of times and I'm not going to lie-it's been pretty ugly.  I made Adam do a team WOD with me the first time I went back. We finished last.  It was amazing.  I'm sure Adam thought so anyway...it's a good thing he's not competitive.  (Too bad sarcasm doesn't translate well on the computer).  Ugly or not, it does feel good to be moving again.  I was pretty much out of the game for about seven months and I can definitely tell.  I'm actually surprised by how (for the most part) patient I have been with losing weight and getting back in to shape.  Most days I don't feel too discouraged about things and, let's face it, you always feel better when you are exercising.  Adam totally caught me using a hair tie to button my pants the other day, though.  Oops!

Allrighy y'all.  That's all I can think of for today.  Stay tuned for a Thanksgiving post and happy Thursday!

...on two months

Oh the Quinn man.  I can't believe this guy is already two months old.  It seems like we have had him forever.  He's just the sweetest thing.  It's pretty fun to have a baby around again!  Here is this little guy at two months.  A whopping 10.7lbs!  He definitely looks more like me than Jack did/does but also looks a lot like Jackson.  Quinn has more olive skin (like me) and I'm pretty sure that he is going to have brown hair!

As a frame of reference...here is Jack at 2 months in the same outfit!

...on birthday festivities

Well here we are.  Another year has gone by and we are now the proud parents of a very energetic two year old.  Honestly, some mornings I could swear that he has a stash of sugar in his crib-he wakes up FULL of energy and super chatty!  Speaking of sugar...we have been celebrating Jack's birthday since Friday!  We had a small family "Big Truck" party-here is the cake.  

Jack was more excited about the m&ms on the cake than anything else.  I think Quinn wanted a bite...

He did a great job opening his presents and really loved each and every one of them.  

This morning (his actual birthday) I made banana pancakes-candles included!  He LOVES blowing out candles and is really good at it!  He also loves pancakes but I think they might just be a vessel for the syrup.  

We went to the doctor for two year and two month check ups and met Adam at Chick'fil-a for lunch.  Did you know that you can trade in the toy for an ice cream cone?  Well, you can.  It's probably not a good idea to do it right at nap time thought because this can happen...

Wasted ice cream.  Such a tragedy.  

Oh, Jackson.  Happy birthday little buddy.  Here are a few of my favorites Jackisms so far...

When asked where the milk is:  "It's in the fridgegador"

"Where'd the weedweeder go?  

"Is papa making money for the man?"

Again, I'm sure there are so many more things to add but I just can't think of them at the moment.  

..on giving thanks

As with most of my posts lately, i'm just not really sure where to start.  Lately I have been overwhelmed with the feeling of thankfulness.  Thankful for Jackson, Quinn, Adam, our families, our wonderful friends, our beautiful home, even our crazy little dog.  Maybe it's the hormones and the lack of sleep but I find myself much more sensitive to everything lately.  I feel like things that I used to once view as a burden I'm beginning to view as a gift.  I have even found that (most days) I have more patience for Jackson.

It's funny, I have noticed lately that a lot of people talk about what we "deserve".  Like, "oh, you deserve so much better."  That word has really stood out to me lately.  What do we deserve, really? I don't believe that I deserve all of the wonderful things that I have.  I believe that God has been gracious with me and has given me these things even though I don't deserve them-because he loves me despite the fact that I'm so undeserving.  ( I would try to elaborate but I think I'm still processing it all!)

I think it is that fact that has overwhelmed me and made me more thankful for the things that I have.

So...I'm thankful for a toddler who wakes up every morning saying "Hey mama!" "Mama, where are you?"  And who falls asleep like this in the stroller after a walk to Starbucks.

I'm thankful for a tiny baby who is healthy, chunky, and starting to smile.

And for a husband who doesn't mind drying off with a hand towel because all of the regular towels are dirty.  

So, so much to be thankful for.  :)

...on stickers and sushi

Ah stickers.  I'm ever so thankful that we do not have them stuck to the windows in our car.  We do, however, have some randomly strewn about our house.  Have I mentioned that Jackson loves to share-sometimes?  Just yesterday he offered to give Quinn and m&m-pretty good for a kid who loves sweets! (I can't imagine who he got that from)  Well, I don't know if it's because the holiday are coming up but Jackson was feeling very generous with his stickers last week.  See for yourself!

Such a sweet, sweet boy!

Here are the boys little halloween costumes.  A sushi chef and a sushi.  As usual, I got kinda scrappy with their costumes and this is what we ended up with.  

Not great pictures but it's incredibly hard to get any good shots of a two year old who only wants to move and a seven week old who can't really move.  

..on life lately

I have really missed blogging over the last couple of weeks.  It seems like every day I think to myself, "I should write a blog about that" and then I get distracted with something child or household related.  Of course, now that I actually have time to sit down and write my mind is a total blank.  I'm not quite sure where to start.  How about on life with two kids?  Well, that seems like it needs a post of its own.

I suppose I'll just add in some pictures and go from there.

My sister came to visit a few weeks ago and it was so much fun to have her here!  I love to have here here and I know that Jackson does too!

We had such a fun time relaxing and talking.  She also helped me go through my closet and get rid of some things.  A lot of things.  I think I ended up getting rid of over half of my clothes.  She held up the clothes and I told her yes or no.  She also perfected the art of saying, "what about this one" but really meaning, "this one needs to go!"  It's very freeing (in a strange way) to look in my closet and only see clothes that I actually wear.

Hammy and I took Jack to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago.  He was totally overwhelmed at first (as he always is when we go somewhere new) but warmed up pretty well and had a great time.  I think we have prayed for the bunnies, goats, cows, and horses every day since we went.

Probably his favorite thing was pulling the wagon and picking out pumpkins.  He insisted on pulling the wagon himself.  We walked down one row of pumpkins and right as we turned the corner Jack saw one he just had to have.  He walked straight up to it and said, "I want this one" while trying to pick it up himself.  After that he chose two more and would have kept on putting them in the wagon if I had let him!

...on our first born goober

Oh Jackson Craig...what can I say?  You are an adorable little goober.  This picture was taken on our walk earlier this week.  He got down to see what was behind the wall.  I think it looks like he is doing  a  push up-pretty cute.  I just wanted to take a minute to share some of the fun/funny things that this kid is doing right now.  He's at a pretty funny and challenging age but I'm doing my best to focus on the good!  (Sometimes my best is kind of not so good)

Today before nap he picked up one of his kid's Bibles and said, "I wanna read the Bible tells me".  Because in the song "Jesus Loves Me" it says the Bible tells me so.  Pretty cute, huh?

In the morning when he wants a smoothie he goes into the pantry and brings out the little blender then proceeds to say, "I want a foopie".

We were driving the other day and I heard him repeat the same phrase over and over and over.  I couldn't quite figure out what he was saying and then it clicked.  He was saying, "nobody cared, nobody cared, nobody cared."  I was a little puzzled and kind of worried at what he was saying until I realized it is a line from one of his favorite books, "The Little Blue Truck".

He loves to have dance parties with Adam but is very particular.  It has to be playing through the TV and it has to be the song "some nights" by Fun.

When we are in a parking lot I always say, "hold mommy's hand".  Usually he takes my hand but sometimes he says, "I wanna hold my hand" and he will hold his hands together then proceed to walk with both of his hands clasped tightly in front of him.

I feel like there are so many more funny things that he does but I'm drawing a blank right now.

Sweet big brother-holding Quinn.  And (below) rocking him after giving him a burp cloth, his milk, and a tennis ball.  

..on the fiesta

I feel like I post the same thing every year about the balloon fiesta.  Well, we love it.  It really never gets old AND it's so special to Adam and I because that's where he proposed.  Our little family of four ventured out to the field on Wednesday morning.  I think Jackson really had fun watching the balloons. I know that he had fun eating the mini donuts but, then again, so did I!

There is this weather man here, Steve Stucker, who I just think is so precious.  Jack and I watch him sometimes on the news and every Friday he has his dogs on with him.  So every time Jack sees any weather map on tv he says, "dog's on the tv?"  Anyway, we saw him last year and I really wanted a picture but I totally chickened out.  This year I got my picture!

 This is how Quinn spent his first Balloon fiesta.  Only four weeks old!  He slept almost the entire time but woke up right before we left so I got to nurse him at the park-in the cold.  It was pretty incredible.

 And this is how our first born spent most of the morning-with donut in hand.  I think he had four but we figured four tiny donuts doesn't even equal one whole one so it's ok.

I have more pictures but am having technical difficulties with my computer right now.  Sadly, the fiesta is over for the year but the balloons will probably linger this week.  I feel like balloon fiesta is the kick off to the fall season and all the fun things it brings!