Happy Birthday little girl

My one and only little girl turns 2 today. Happy Birthday Bella! May your day be filled with many naps, treats (tonight's treat is a big donut cookie!), playtime, and belly rubs.

The day we got her (8 weeks old)

Last year (1 year old)

Today

Time

There are not enough hours in a day. I mean, I knew I would be busy once I went back to work, but wow! I feel lucky that it is now 8:45pm and I am actually sitting down tonight. Last night I didn't sit down at all -- I even pumped before bed while making more pureed sweet potatoes for the boys.

I think part of it is the fact that we are still working on our basement so every free minute is spent down there. BUT, there is light at the end of that tunnel. Tomorrow Dan is installing a door to our mechanical room and finishing up our electrical. The lights are hung. Friday, Troy is painting the first coat of paint (with hopes of the second coat being done Saturday or Sunday). Then next Friday we are having our carpet installed. If all goes well, next weekend we can actually move the basement furniture and storage boxes back down there, with only the molding left to put up. It will be nice to have our living room and family room back (all of our basement stuff is stored there). Don't get me wrong...I am SO happy with how the basement is turning out, and I'm grateful for all the help we've had with this, but perhaps for my sanity, we shouldn't have started this big project the weekend before I went back to work.

The other part of it is that the boys are no longer taking a little nap between 7-8pm. We usually feed them for bed at 8pm, but couldn't usually make it that late, so they took a short nap before bed. Yes, we could just put them to bed at 7pm, but since they eat dinner at 5:30, I highly doubt they are ready for their bedtime bottle 1.5 hours later. Monday, even after they were rubbing their eyes and starting to fuss, they fought us with taking this nap. So, I just let them start playing again and they were fine. Last night they didn't even show signs of wanting to sleep at 7pm and again tonight, the same thing happened. Now I need to figure out how to get things done that I used to do in that one hour.

Enough of the "woe am I"...I know. I just need to be better at prioritizing things and use my time more wisely, both at home and at work. I need to realize that not everything on my to-do list has to be done every day. There are millions of working moms out there that very successfully manage both home and work life. I just need to find that balance still. Any advice is welcome =) Who wants to do work when you get home though, when you have these two cuties in your life?

Happy Little Boys

A little video from last night. Ellis was just so giggly...

Grandma has gotten the boys a new "toy" and they just love it. I was even happier that she was able to get some cute pictures of them enjoying their new jumper. Looks like we'll have to get something like that for home...

Happy Friday (almost)!

A new favorite teether

Ellis found a new "toy" today...

Ellis has sucked Logan's toe (as seen here), and his own toe (shown here), but my toe?? Freakin hilarious!

This week

What can I say? I just can't get ahead. I'm still trying to figure out how to have a better balance between home and work once I get home from work but that means that some things I've been doing in the past get put to the end of my list...such as blogging. Hopefully a few pictures and a video will be okay for those of you who have been wondering where I've been lately..

Ellis after his bath. We've been giving Logan some funky hair-do's in the past -- today was Ellis's turn!

Bella just wanted to share some of her love with Ellis -- a big fat kiss on the lips!

Ellis has been playing with his feet for quite a while now, but just recently got them all the way to his mouth.

Ellis seemed to think that the little bear on Logan's butt was a toy. Not only did he get a hold of it, but he was able to grab it good enough to stick it in his mouth (where EVERYTHING seems to be going lately).

Logan enjoys sticking his butt up in the air. He is seriously trying to move, although Ellis definitely has him beat with moving around on his stomach and rolling to get to where he needs to be. I'm actually quite shocked because Logan used to be Mr. Independent, but Ellis is definitely more content on his belly playing for longer periods of time, compared to Logan. Logan gets more agitated and has a bit of a shorter attention span, compared to Ellis.

And a little video. Before changing Logan or Ellis, sometimes we'll wave the diaper over their face. It's a bit hard to catch on video, but its hilarious how Logan blinks his eyes a bunch and makes gulping sounds like he's trying to taste the air and catch his breath. So funny!

Nothing else too new around here. Both boys are sticking anything and everything in their mouths lately and drooling like crazy, but still no major signs of teething (no swollen gums or white showing). We did try oatmeal this week, but right now we're putting that one on the back burner. Logan got sick later and threw up all over me during his bottle right before bed. We're not sure if it was because of a reaction to the oatmeal or if maybe the oatmeal just filled him up more than the rice and he didn't need the bigger bottle before bed. The next morning, he woke up and his skin was red all over, which to me makes me think of an allergic reaction. His behavior definitely didn't indicate anything was wrong (aside from crying after he threw up the night before), so who knows. We're back with the rice for now and all is good!

Today was a fun day spent with my mom and sister for our monthly crafting day. I'm still working on Ellis's 1 month album that my mom gave to me. I'm done with Logan's, but only half way done with Ellis's. I'm hoping that after our October gathering, I'll have it done. That might be kind of wishful thinking considering we (or maybe just I) talk so much that I don't get as much done as I could if I just got to work, but I will definitely be close. Tomorrow brings some football watching, grocery shopping, and cleaning up the basement. We're just about ready to paint the ceiling, but must clean up the drywall mess first (which is totally no fun..just ask Troy!). Hope everyone is enjoying their beautiful weekend!

Remembering Today

It's one of those moments you will never forget - where you were when you heard about the World Trade Center attacks. I was at Central and had my Nature Study class that morning at 9am. I remember going to class and my professor being late. He walked in and said that class was cancelled (the entire school, in fact, closed down for the day) and mentioned briefly what had happened. Of course I was clueless of what he was talking about -- I was walking to class when the planes actually hit the WTC. I walked back to our apartment and watched the news. Such a surreal event. I couldn't believe something like that could have happened in the U.S. It was like a scene from the movies. What really hit home was watching the ticker at the bottom of the screen and how it mentioned that many National Guard members would be called to active duty. Troy and I weren't together at the time (it was after our first breakup), but I remember calling him to see if he knew anything about being called to active duty since he was in the National Guard at the time. Obviously it was too soon to know anything, but it was a very scary thing to think he might have to go, after such a tragedy happened. To the almost 3000 people who lost their lives that day, you will never be forgotten. And to the millions of soldiers, including Troy, who have served our country since this horrible event, thank you for risking your lives to make our lives better. Such selflessness goes into being a soldier...

This weekend was a busy one, again! Troy spent a majority of the day yesterday working in the basement. He sanded the mud that was applied last weekend with my dad and then touched up places that needed it. Our hope is that he can sand one last time this week so he can paint the ceiling on Friday and maybe start painting walls on Sunday! We also think we will be getting carpet downstairs instead of cork, for a few different reasons, so we might go check out prices, colors, types, etc. this week sometime so we can get that figured out.

Last night of course was the mighty University of Michigan/Notre Dame game! I only stayed up for half the game (of course the boring half), but heard all about it when I woke up. Troy watched the entire thing and even recorded the last two minutes of the game for me to watch!

Today was a mix of cleaning, grocery shopping, yard work, school work, football, and relaxing. Troy and I are both playing fantasy football, so of course we watched as much football as possible and kept our computers nearby for constant updates! Ellis even enjoyed watching a little bit of football...

Logan didn't mind football, but had more fun having quite the conversation with Sophie (his teething toy!)

As for me, I'm happy the first week of school is over with. It actually wasn't too bad -- once I got there. The most stressful part was the commute for 2 of the days. I'm leaving about 10 minutes later than I did last year, but it took me over an hour (one day, an hour and a half), which made me late both days...not good when I had things to do before school started. I think a lot of it had to do with all the rain, because Friday I left just a little bit earlier and I got there in about 35 minutes. Between that and trying to figure out how to get all my work done and my pumping in, during my breaks, it was a little hectic. Now, I think I've got it all figured out and hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here on out. If only I can fight this cold that suddenly came on around 2pm before it gets worse...

As for the boys, nothing major new with them. LOTS of chatting (at 6am this morning they were quite the chatterbugs, but luckily for me they fell back asleep until 7am) and LOTS of drooling. Still no physical signs of teething - no swollen gums - but lots of drooling and putting everything possible in their mouth. Ellis did start playing with his ears a bit, although that could mean a variety of things, so who knows if any teeth will be showing anytime soon. Their naps have been shortening lately -- their late afternoon nap has gone from 2 hours long to 1 hour at most. During the week, this is the time that they are in the car driving home with me, which is 1 hour at most, so I don't know if they are just getting used to that, or if they are getting to the age where they don't need that long of a nap at that time.

Well, its time to feed the boys and put them to bed. I hope everyone enjoyed their beautiful weekend (I thought the weather forecast mentioned rain for a majority of the weekend, but it was quite beautiful here!) and have a great upcoming week!

This little piggy

The boys have been all about their feet lately -- playing with them, kicking fiercely with them, and holding them -- but today Ellis took it to a new level...

...and Logan didn't seem to mind at all!

Labor Day weekend recap

We've had a pretty good weekend over here. It was definitely nice to have a 4 day weekend before school starts tomorrow. We got a lot done, saw some family and friends, and squeezed in a little bit of time to relax.

Friday was partly relaxing, partly working. Troy spent a portion of the day downstairs sanding the second coat of mud, while I hung out with the boys. Our cute picture of the day -- Bella giving kisses to Logan..

We also tried some sweet potatoes on Friday. They loved them just as much as the peas! I'm glad they are not having any trouble with the little bit of food they are trying out. They definitely aren't fussing like they did when they first tried rice cereal and they seem to like the new foods quite a bit. I'm thinking about trying bananas next...gotta get another fruit in there besides applesauce!

On Saturday my parents came over. My dad came to help Troy with the drywall. Troy is SO wanting this part of the basement to be done with, so with an extra set of hands, they were able to get the 3rd coat of mud on, fairly quickly considering the big space they had to work on. Troy is hoping to sand that sometime this week and then see where any little touch-ups need to be done. Maybe we'll paint the ceiling next weekend? While the guys were working hard, my mom and I just chatted and played with the boys.

On Sunday, we visited with the Chandlers. They also invited over an old friend from college (a long-time friend of Derek's), Doug, along with his wife Danica, and son Logan. We had an awesome dinner and a good time catching up with everyone. Logan was so close to sitting on his own yesterday. Well, actually, he did for 5-10 seconds before starting to topple. I guess I don't know how long they have to remain steady before you can actually say that he can sit on his own, but I was one proud mama! Ellis is working on it to, but definitely prefers laying on his tummy. Val also got some great pictures of the boys.

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Logan so far..thanks Val for capturing some good ones! =)

Today we got a lot of stuff around the house done. Cleaning, baking, ironing, blah blah. We also tested out some new bottle/sippy cups with the boys. They have an interchangeable nipple/sippy "nipple" and looks very similar to a bottle, but has handles on it so they can get used to holding it themselves. I just put water in it to see if they would get the idea and they did pretty good for the first time. Of course I had to hold them like they were drinking a bottle, but they've held their bottle off and on in the past few weeks (not for a long time by any means), so I thought it was worth a shot.

I'm not sure how they'd react to the other sippy nipple but for now, it's all about practicing to hold it on their own.

Well, thats about it for us. I'm LOVING this cooler weather. I can't wait to bust out the hoodies and sweatpants. I'm also looking forward to cider and donuts (jealous, but not surprised, that you already hit up the cider mill Nicole!), football, and snuggling up on the couch with blankets! Don't get me wrong -- I'm probably going to be the first to complain when it gets cold enough for snow, but I'm okay if the 90's don't ever return this year.

Happy Labor Day and to all my teacher friends, happy first day of school tomorrow!!