Such a great Mid-Winter Break!

I think this was probably the best mid-winter break I've had in a LONG time.  We only had 3 days off, compared to the usual week, but I definitely took advantage and did LOTS of fun things.  As mentioned in the past post, we spent Wednesday at Nicole's house.  I got my hands on some of her great pictures too, so here are a few more...

So cute that Parker wanted to sit in his travel chair because the boys were.  I wonder if he thought
twice about wanting to sit down by them, after Ellis stole the donut hole off his tray?!?

Both boys have been quite cuddly lately, and will actually rest their head on our shoulders especially when they are tired.  I soak up EVERY minute of this because I know it won't last for long.

On Thursday, we went to visit with Sheila and Luke for a few hours.  The boys had a lot of fun playing and I definitely look forward to more play dates in the near future.

Logan checking out some toys in Luke's toy bin.

By far my most favorite picture of Ellis lately.  He just LOVED that chair.

On to Friday -- my own play date with my mom and sister.  It was just a girl's weekend - a whole weekend of crafting.  Friday began with what was supposed to be a quick dinner, but turned into a pretty funny story.  We just decided to grab a pizza and eat it in Nicole's car before heading to a few scrapbook stores.  Well, unfortunately during the time we were eating and chatting, the car battery died.  Although we were fairly close to Nicole's house, calling Mark wasn't the best solution since he had both kids, and it was 7:30pm and snowing, so walking back to her house wasn't the best solution either.  So, I headed into Little Caesars and asked the older man if he or anyone else had jumper cables.  A younger kid came out to try to jump the car, but his car was too old in order to transfer the charge.  Then, the older man came out with his newer van and tried to help us.  Luckily, within minutes we had the car running, but this man (with all good intentions) told Nicole EVERYTHING he knew about car batteries, including how they work, what to look for, what kind to buy, where to go to buy one, etc.  It was actually pretty comical but thankfully we were able to continue our plans for the night.  Then we stayed at my parents house (my dad went to visit my grandpa for the weekend).  Lots of laughs, crafts, and good times!

I am very pleased with what I accomplished this weekend.  We all got quite a bit done.  I got all caught up on my Project Life, up until this week.  I then continued working on the scrapbooks I'm making of the boys, to document their first year.  My goal (back in December when I started it), was to have them done by their first birthday, or a great majority of it.  But, with starting Project Life and taking a class, in addition to the regular work I do on a daily basis, I haven't been able to work on it as much as I had liked, until this weekend.  I got 8 layouts done this weekend, and with the other 2 I did back in December, I still have nearly 35 layouts to go.  I may be able to put a dent in that amount, but I'm accepting that I won't get them all done in the next month.  I'm hoping in the next week or so, to post some of my favorite layouts so far.  I'm going for the very simplistic layouts - they are boys after all - I don't want to make them too cutesy, but so far I like them all!  Maybe I'll have to have Troy pick out his favorites since I might be a bit biased!  =)

In the week ahead - tomorrow it's back to the grind.  Back to work after having such a great break.  All good things have to come to an end though, right?  I'm looking forward to starting to plan this very special birthday party, that will be coming at the end of the month, as well as hopefully squeezing some treadmill time into my already busy life.  I must get back into some sort of exercise regiment and start eating better.  I was lucky to not have to worry about much of that while pumping, but now 3 weeks since I officially ended, it's amazing how quick my body reminded me that I can't eat everything in sight.  I do have this week off from my class for Spring Break (yes, Troy, community colleges have Spring Break too), so perhaps I can get some of this done after the boys go to bed at night.

And for me, its time for bed myself...or at least getting ready for bed...  Good night!

Fun at the Reaves' house

Yesterday the boys and I took a trip to the Reaves for a majority of the day.  It was lots of fun to catch up with Nicole and see all the kids play.  Val came over with Delevan too, for the afternoon, and Nicole got to meet the little cutie!  Morgan, aka Foofa, loved both posing in pictures and taking pictures herself...

Here are some pictures that Morgan took:

Not too bad for a 3.5 year old, huh?

Ellis is getting even more risky with his "skills" and I was able to capture this video:




It's only a matter of time now, isn't it?!?

It was an awesome day, and I look forward to many more days like that.  Summer can't come soon enough.

For today, we are off to see Sheila and Lucas for the morning for another play date.  Tomorrow I get a play date of my own -- our first girls weekend!  My mom, Nicole, and I are getting together for an entire weekend of crafting sans kids.  Neither Nicole or I have slept away from our kids, let alone for two nights, but we are way excited for the fun us girls will have.

Smarty Pants

The boys sure have been showing their smarts lately.  This weekend, Ellis learned how to get their car ramp toy to move, by hitting an arrow on it.  Then he started putting the toys in (not just cars either) to watch them spin.  Once it stopped, he'd hit it again.



Logan caught on quick because after this video, he crawled up to it to do it to.  Now how do we get Ellis to understand that if he tries sitting in it, he isn't going to spin because he's too big?

At grandmas today, the boys discovered the fun things in the bathroom.  Within moments of my mom going to the bathroom, Logan made it to the shower and turned the cold water on -- yeah, literally reached across the tub and could turn the knob!  As my mom was changing Logan's diaper before their nap, Ellis made his way into the bathroom and got to the toilet and actually flushed it.  Of course they think it is such an adventure to play in the bathroom because the door is always closed (aside from the 5 minutes today that they could get in there), so it's no surprise that they found something to get in to!

Yesterday I learned what to do to keep a very busy boy occupied and quiet for a good 10 minutes.  Give him my 40 Stampin Up markers in a case that I forgot to close all the way.  This is what I got in return:

 

 He didn't play favorites to specific colors either.  Just one after another...

....after another..

...until they were ALL out of the box.  Now what to do, you ask??

Spread them all over the basement!!  Too funny!!

Other exciting tidbits - the boys first spaghetti dinner (eating it on their own)...

And cruising all  around the house.  Now they use the wall to help them stand up and walk around. Slow down boys.  I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to chase both of them when they can both walk (and run), although I have already decided that Ellis will most likely be the one getting into more trouble, so if I have a choice, I'll have to go after him first!

Logan's new talent

During our Google Chat session with Grandma and Grandpa Bush -



Okay, so it sounds more like "ba ba ba" but I'm taking it as buh-bye, especially since he waves along with it.  Such a cutie!

Happy Valentines Day

Along with a few pictures from this weekend, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day.  I know, a little late, but better late than never, right?

Since I completely forgot to take my camera to Val and Derek's this weekend, Val was so kind to take some pictures and send them to me.  It's crazy how enormous my little babies looked compared to Delevan!  

Here is the official introduction of Delevan:

And then there is Logan, who surprisingly got comfy on the couch
and chilled there for a while, legs crossed and all...

Can't forget Ellis - trying to climb all over me.  Go figure!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with love.  I know I did!  

A new arrival, the end of a love/hate relationship, and more

I know I haven't been very good with keeping this blog updated lately, but last week was such a busy week and I'm thankful it is over!

First, the most exciting news is that Delevan Richard Chandler arrived on Monday night.  We made a short visit yesterday, and introduced the boys to their new BFF.  Of course he slept the whole time, oh I remember those days, but I did get a little snuggle time with him.  He is so adorable and tiny and it is so hard to remember that our boys were even smaller when they were born.  The Chandler's are doing well and adjusting to their life as a family of 3.  We look forward to many more visits in the near future, and can't wait to see the three boys grow up together.  Congrats again guys!

Now, to the end of my love/hate relationship.  As many of you know - I am not known to keep my feelings hidden now, am I? - pumping was not my idea of a good time.  At the beginning, it was literally a matter of spending 30 minutes every 3 hours hooked to that damn pump.  Not a big deal since the boys slept so much, but still not fun, just because of all the adjustments new babies bring to begin with.  Around the 3 month mark, I slowly spread out the length between pumps and again looked forward to that day that I could drop even more pumps and quit.  There's nothing like living your life around the next time I had to pump.  My long-term goal was 9 months, but once I started back to work in September, I really wondered if I would even make it that far.  Every break I got, I pumped, which is hard considering my prep time at school consisted in needing to make copies, prep science supplies, etc, which is hard to do when attached to a pump.  It's amazing how much I learned how to multi-task, just to get things done, including drive and pump at the same time (not as hard as it sounds actually).  As the boys started eating solids and the amount they drank lessened, I talked myself into dropping pumps.  It's amazing how hard it was to really drop pumps, considering how much I despised doing it, just because it turned into such a mind game.  I had been pumping, and pumping, and pumping, and drinking as much water as I could, and eating oatmeal in everything - homemade granola bars, oatmeal in every cookie imaginable, bowls of oatmeal for breakfast, you name it, I did it.  Just to get as much milk as I could.  Then, the thought of dropping pumps and losing ounces?!?  Not fun, but slowly I accepted it.  Then, 9 months came - my Christmas break - the perfect time to stop pumping so my body could get adjusted to it while I was home.  Not so quick.  The boys had a pretty bad cold and I couldn't fathom the idea of stopping pumping since they were getting the nutrients to hopefully get better even quicker because of the antibodies in breastmilk.  So, I continued.  It wasn't until last Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - exactly 10 months, 1 week, and 1 day of pumping, when I did my last pump.  I'm happy to have been able to persist for so long and give the boys the best nutrition they could get for those 10 months, but damn, it's such a good feeling to be done!  Today I actually packed my pump away.  Troy suggests that I go out and take it to a field and shoot it to pieces.  I'm not sure about that one, but lets just say I'm glad to see it off the counter.

In other news:

• I had my first math test last Tuesday.  Not sure on the results yet, but it was pretty easy.  There was a question or two that I was unsure of, but overall, I think I did well.
• The boys have been acting so cute lately.  When they get tired, they like to rest their head on our shoulder.  Or, if they are crawling, they'll just stop, mid-crawl and lay down on the carpet.  We even put the oversized pillows from our couch on the ground and they like laying on those.  

• The boys are notorious for wiggling their way away from us during a diaper change.  Unfortunately, Logan doing so last week resulted in a wet shirt after he peed on it at grandma's house when he was crawling away from her - oops!  I couldn't resist getting this picture, when he snuck away from me last week.

• As for us, nothing too new is going on here.  We've been really bad with putting together dinner ideas, so we've been doing a lot of easy meals and a few too many frozen meals.  We put together a better menu for dinner this week and we're making 4 new meals, so we'll see how this goes.  If anyone has any great meal ideas, I'd love to hear them.  Nicole did a great blog post about her monthly meal list - 31 different meals!  How awesome is that?  Our meal tonight was one from her list - an oldie that we hadn't had in years - Chicken Crescent Rolls.  Thanks to Val and Derek during our CMU days for that recipe!!!    
• The boys are lovin' all their food lately.  I think their most recent favorite would have to be the Cheddar Broccoli Bites I made them a few weeks ago.  Today I made them sweet potato fries with cinnamon.  I figured baking them would be better (and less mushy) than boiling them and cubing them up.  

They are especially good at sticking their hands in their mouth after having a bite of food, and then sticking their hands in their hair.  Then they get really crazy hairstyles to top it off!

So, that has been our week, in a nutshell.  I am hoping for a much less hectic upcoming week.  Then to next week with only 2 working days and a scrapbooking weekend to look forward too!  Have a great week everyone!!!

I'm gonna get you..

A little fun after work yesterday..