Oh, Amazon, our dear friend

RRL and I have, without even trying, become frequent (VERY FREQUENT) amazon shoppers lately. It all started with a great deal on some books for favors at Cbug's party, a couple of hard to find toys and a new GPS (our Christmas gift)...and in ONE WEEK's time turned into this:

Thank you, our friend AMAZON.COM! (Could we please get some kind of discount for this little plug?)

ABL

Rewind to Christmas #1- Santa

We made several attempts to get pictures with Santa Clause (and Santa Cow), but the boys did not think that was such a great idea. Cbug was pretty much terrified which is completely uncharacteristic of him and totally threw us off guard (which is why we tried more than once). KJ We did not really make a huge deal out of Santa in general with KJ so he was pretty much indifferent toward the man in the red suit, could have cared less about talking to him and only smiled for pictures when bribed.

When the above Santa (at the mall) asked KJ what he would like for Christmas, KJ just said "How about one of those candy canes over there?" and pointed to Santa's bucket of treats. It was just fine with us that he wasn't into the concept of wishing for the moon.

Overall, KJ had only three requests for Christmas. When someone asked he would say "some candy, some sunglasses, and some blue Christmas lights." The candy was stuck on his brain after the Santa visit. He lost his sunglasses at Walmart in Nov (read- he threw them down and we couldn't find them) and I had told him I would not get him more until Christmas so that explains that one. And the blue Christmas lights were a result of us driving around on lots of occasions to look at lights. One night he just declared "The blue lights are the best" and from then on wanted some for his own. All three of his requests were easily manageable and were granted, so he had a great Christmas!

KJ's very own blue lights, not the best picture, but you get the idea.

Sunglasses

Cbug's new tub of plastic food (this tub of food, to which I've since added some play dishes, has proven to provide HOURS of entertainment for BOTH boys, without taking up the space that a play kitchen would. Thanks for the great idea, Aunt M!)

Stay tuned for more to come in the "Rewind to Christmas" series. However, the series is sure to be frequently interrupted by the regularly scheduled randomness that is this blog. I know you just can't wait!

ABL

A day for the books

Today is a day that I'd like to forget for a little while, but laugh about later. So I better document it now. Today the brothers had so much fun playing together. They shared well, they laughed together and entertained each other better than ever before. They did so well that they had me fooled into thinking that I could leave them unsupervised while I worked on laundry.

The first sign that this might not be a great idea came as I pulled my clean sheets out of the washing machine...and discovered my cell phone had joined the load of laundry. I loaded the washing machine over the course of an hour or so as I gathered towels, sheets, etc, between interacting with the boys. Both of them were in and out of the laundry room "helping" at various times. So while it might be possible that the phone was wrapped up in the sheets when I took them off my bed, I'm thinking it is even more likely that one of my little helpers decided my phone needed a bath.

You would think that a phone in the washing machine would warn me that the boys were not quite ready to play unsupervised, but I'm a slow learner.

This evening I went to change out another load of laundry, leaving both boys giggling in the play tent in KJ's room. I was gone for maybe 3 minutes. When I came back in to the living room (where Cbug had crawled) I noticed a strange odor and saw that he had something in his hand. Yep, it was POOP. There was poop smeared through 3 rooms of our house, inside the play tent, on at least 3 stuffed animals, all inside of one toy bin and was on the bottom of KJ shoes (culprit for smashing it into the carpet in his room). DISGUSTING. Best part is, this happened maybe 30 minutes before RRL got home. They always save the best for Momma, don't they?

Tomorrow, we are NOT staying home all day. No matter how cold it is and no matter how happily the "little angels" seem to be playing together. Good thing I love them so much!

ABL

The things that come out of his mouth...

...have to make you laugh.

I still need to do a few more rewind posts (Christmas and our anniversary), but in the mean time, I thought I should document a few of the funny things that have recently come out of this mouth.

1) KJ got new scissors for Christmas. We keep them put up really high and only get them down under "controlled circumstances". Every time we get them out we make a really big deal out of the fact that we "ONLY CUT PAPER". I've been VERY careful never to say "and we don't cut ____" worried that anything I put in the blank might give him an idea. Today at lunch he asked if we could get the scissors out after lunch. RRL said "sure, but remember we only cut paper" and KJ said "that's right, just paper, and NOT Mommy's hair" with a huge sneaky grin on his face. Help me remember to guard my locks carefully next time he has those shears in his little hand.

2) At lunch last week, I was giving KJ some options. I said "You can have some yogart or what about applesauce or maybe oranges". KJ thought for a minute then said "Mommy, can you say 'What about oreos' please". Nice try little man.

3) KJ was "helping" clean-up after bath by throwing all of the bath toys out of the bathtub. I was in his room putting Cbug's diaper and clothes on so I did not know until I got back to the bathroom to see toys and water everywhere. I told him that he needed to put all of the toys back in the bathtub. A few minutes later I came back and asked him if he got them all. He replied "Nope, there is one in the trashcan. It was a GREAT shot". Apparently the toys were not randomly thrown out of the tub. He was trying to get them into the trash can...but only made one.

4) KJ loves to talk on the phone to his grandparents. However, recently when RRL was talking to my mom he asked KJ if he wanted to talk to Nonna. KJ thought for a minute and then said "No, tell her I'm kinda busy playing right now". Oh, excuse us for interrupting your important tasks.

5) KJ often talks about his "sister". This would be so very cute if he was talking about the sister in my belly. Instead, though, if you ask him where his sister is he will either say "She's over there" (pointing aimlessly over his shoulder) or he will say "She is in class right now". We are not sure exactly where her class is (although sometimes he talks about our youth center at church) or what class she is taking or why he thinks his sister is there. But his answer is consistent so who can argue?

6)This is not a specific story, but it also cracks me up that KJ is into role playing and will tell us what to say to fit into his little imaginary world. He'll say "can you say_____?" or "you say____, then I'm going to say____" and we are supposed to follow instructions. He'll correct us along the way if we "forget" or say something incorrectly. When I do a good job he says "Great job, Mom" or "There ya go, you did it" in his best grown-up/teacher voice. HILARIOUS!

He's at such a funny stage which in some ways makes me in a funny stage as a Mom. It kind of makes me laugh when I look back at conversations I've had with people and realize that they likely did not care about ANY of the KJ/Cbug stories I just shared. I just can't help myself, I just HAVE to share and talk about my kiddos. Ah well, that's all I got these days...and I'll take it.

ABL

The Hat Party

Cbug LOVES hats. In fact, he thinks all things basically fit into two categories...either it must be FOOD or it must be a HAT, it must either go in your mouth or on your head (actually, it's usually both). He doesn't necessarily like to wear hats for any length of time, but does love to play with them, take them off of other people's heads, play peek-a-boo from behind them, etc. So we decided for his 1st birthday we would have a "Hat" theme, and have everyone come wearing a hat...instant entertainment for our one-year-old!
(This family picture makes me laugh, but it is pretty standard for what we get these days. I do wish you could see Cbug's outfit a little better. My mom made him overalls with his initials cross-stitched across the front. AMAZINGLY HANDSOME!)

I went with the "hat"theme and made a baseball cap cake (much MUCH easier than the train cake at KJ's first birthday).

Both boys, of course, loved eating the cake. Cbug was a little intimidated by the big cake when we put it in front of him, but tore into a cupcake after we traded.

Cbug loved getting to play with friends...

...and he loved his very first adventure in the amazing indoor playscape at our church- I think that mr. fearless would have climbed to the top if someone had been willing to help him a little.

It was a fun day and we were so blessed to have so many people that love our Cbug there with us to celebrate!

ABL

Cbug is ONE!

As shocked as I am to be expecting a GIRL, I'm even more amazed that my baby boy is ONE! Cbug celebrated his birthday at the beginning of January, right in the middle of Christmas craziness. A year ago we were celebrating Christmas at our house with my family and he decided to make his surprise debut right in the middle of it all. Knowing that this would mean his birthday would ALWAYS be caught up in the holidays, I tried to convince him to wait until later in the month, but he was determined! That says a lot about our little guy...DETERMINED. We have been so blessed to have him as part of our family. In some ways it doesn't quite seem fair that he just celebrated his first birthday and now is only months away from losing his status as baby of the family. As my Momma says, though, "He always be MY baby!"

Cbug-
Happy Birthday, my second born. Your Daddy, brother and I love you so much. I want you to know how blessed we are that you are part of our family. We thank the Lord that his timing was so perfect in bringing you to us and praise Him for the ways he is working in you and working in us through you. There are lots of things we love about you already and I wanted to try to share a few of those with you. Your Daddy and I love that you are so full of life and joy. Even as much as we love you, you are your own biggest fan and always make yourself laugh...which really makes your family laugh. We love how busy you are and how much fun you have just crawling in speedy circles around the house. We love to watch you wrestle with your brother (gently) and we love that you get so excited about balls, trucks, hats and phones. It cracks us up when you say "Uh-Oh", your favorite word, right BEFORE you throw or drop something. We also love how snugly you are at night, how much you love your little blue bear and how sweetly you suck your thumb as you go to sleep. You and your brother already have such a special relationship. It fills me with pride when I watch you guys play together and just be excited to see each other. You are also going to be an amazing big brother as you help protect and take care of your new baby sister. I can't wait to see all three of you play together!

Happy Birthday to our BIG one-year-old. What an adventure this year has been- we can't wait to see what will come in the next one!

I love you, my sugar-bun, my Cbug.
Mommy

Party pictures coming soon, but for now here are pictures from Cbug's first year (in order starting with the day he came home and then one for each month)...

Worth posting for...

updated for pictures

I totally had so many things that I was planning to blog about last week, and I even put up the last post to motivate myself into feeling like I HAD to at least put pictures up. However, Cbug has been sick this week and then we had his birthday party this weekend, my parents came for a visit and well...life happened. Ah well....all of that can wait, I have big news to share...

We just had our sonogram and were shocked (and of course very excited) to find out that we are going to have a

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even believe I just typed that.

We are just so thrilled to know that she looks perfectly healthy- as much as you can tell on that little screen- and can't wait to see how she adds to our family. We believe that the Lord has special plans for her (as he does for each of us) and can't wait to meet her!!

We did things a little differently for our third sonogram (the first of many times we'll do things differently, I'm sure). We invited our family to join us. Here is the whole gang (RRL, KJ and CBug, one Momma, One Mother-in-law, two sister-in-laws, one niece and one Daddy behind the camera..and me, of course)

KJ and his cousin, getting ready to watch the screen...from between the stirrups. NICE.

I think it is very funny that the moms in this picture look like they are wearing their votes (blue and pink).

What I would've said

So, if I hadn't been a blog slacker for the last month, there is a lot that I might have said. If you add Christmas fun and craziness to being pregnant, having boys that are 2 1/2 and 1, a week out of town, a 7th wedding anniversay, a sinus infection and a partridge in a pair tree...you get a lot to talk about with no time to say it. We certainly did have a wild and fun December.

I'm going to try to do a few catch up posts soon to hit the high-lights so stay tuned. In the meantime, though, my computer time for today is consumed with doing Defensive Driving for that ticket I mentioned a couple of months back. 6 hours of my life that I'll never get back. It is TERRIBLE.

ABL