This is what it's all about

What an awesome, fun-filled weekend!  If this weekend is any preview of what the summer looks like, I can't wait.  Oh, if only we could speed through the next 5 days.  We have 5 more days of wasted time school left and then I will have 8 weeks of freedom!

So, back to this weekend.  Yesterday, we took a trip to Rockford.  It was Mitchell's first birthday party, so we headed out there for the day. Because of all of our hectic schedule's, this was also our first time meeting Mitchell too, so this visit was long overdue.  In the past, we tried to take longer road trips while the boys would be napping in hopes of them sleeping in the car, but that wasn't going to work this time, so we thought we'd plan for a couple stops along the way to keep us all sane.  First stop - donuts at a local donut shop in Flint that Troy hits up every so often.

Then, after 1.5 more hours driving, we stopped at a park in Carson City.  Cute little park that the kids loved playing at and had their picnic lunch.  I was shocked that the park was completely empty - until we left and saw that 1 mile down the street, there was a much larger, newer looking, busier park (with absolutely no shade, in the middle of a field).  I'm happy we stopped at the one we did!

An awesome wooden train to play on

A HUGE slide built into the side of a big hill.

And then finally to Rockford!  What a great time.  Both catching up with Bryan and Erin (and their families), meeting Mitchell and seeing the kids play.  The boys were very well behaved and despite no nap, they had no meltdowns, and had a blast.

Logan actually kept the party hat long enough to get a picture.

It's always fun watching a 1-year old dig into their first birthday cake!

Guess who was super excited when it was cake time?

Ellis surprisingly took 4 bites of Troy's cake!  This was quite the shock since he isn't (or hasn't been) a cake person.

Angie (Erin's sister) reading Ellis one of Mitchell's new books!

Boy they LOVED the playhouse outside!

They both fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving their house and except for a few where-the-hell-am-I wake-ups where Logan was trying desperately to get comfortable, it was a quiet ride home.

Ellis, not even 5 minutes after leaving.

On to today - just a chill day close to home.  After I woke up, I made Troy breakfast, but since he was up for me, I ordered him upstairs to bed, so he could have breakfast in bed (with 2 crazy kids playing around him)

Troy was originally planning to go fishing today, but because of a lot of paperwork he had to get done for the week (which he couldn't have worked on yesterday since we were gone all day), he spent a bit of his Father's Day unfortunately doing that.  We had a quick lunch/stop-through visit from Grandma and Grandpa as they drove through on their way home from up north and then a laid back afternoon since the boys took a later-than-normal nap.  After dinner though we headed to the park where they got out all of their energy running and climbing around on the playscape.

Now, Troy is just jamming on his guitar on the deck (and yes, our neighbor brought over a tip jar with a dollar in it to ask him to play loud enough to entertain his guests at his house), while I sit here updating the blog.  Oh how I'd love for all days to be like today, weather-wise, too.  Just an awesome night to sit on the deck!  

I'm looking forward to little day trips like yesterday, or anything that resembles fun or relaxing, this summer.  Soon-to-come = our 2014 summer bucket list.  Any can't-wait-for ideas from anyone out there?  I'd love to here other's ideas, especially those that are kid-friendly!

The growing words of L and E

I cannot believe that it was only 3 short months ago when the boys started preschool for speech.  Prior to them turning 3, they were in a 1-day/week class with 1 home visit a week from a speech therapist but now they are in class for nearly 3 hours a day for 4 days.  And I am so thankful they have this opportunity.  They have grown SO much during these past months, especially with their speech.  Some recent highlights:

• No more grunting to indicate they want something.  They use words for most of what they want, in addition to "please" that comes afterwards.  One proud mama that they use their manners already!
• Ellis' vocabulary has exploded!  He was literally saying maybe only a dozen words regularly back in March but now he is frequently using 2 (or more) word phrases and saying more words than I would even be able to count.  Go Ellis!
• They frequent repeat what we say now - time to watch our own language!
• They are close to making full sentences.  One morning Ellis woke up and told me "I want cookies please!"  I about fell over, but quickly got him something to eat.  As tempted as I was to give him cookies almost as a reward for saying that to me, he was content with the Cheerios I gave him instead!
• Now that they say (or can repeat) almost everything we say, they are quickly learning that if they don't verbally ask for it (versus grunting or only pointing), they don't get it.  Damn, that is harder than I thought to not give them what they want if they don't verbally ask for it!  

And along with the explosion of talking recently, I've been documenting some of the cute things they say - or should I say the funny things they say that caught me off guard.

• Logan: "Water, please".  I hand him some water. Logan: "Thank you".  Me: "You're welcome". Logan "I'm welcome" and laughs uncontrollably as if it was the funniest thing he's heard.
• Ellis comes up the stairs, where I am in the bathroom and Logan is downstairs crying.  Ellis: "He's crying.  What happened?" As if I should know!  It's probably something Ellis did to Logan - haha!
• Last Saturday morning the boys were up bright and early.  We are barely out of the bedroom and Logan tugs on me saying "Come on mommy - I'm hungry" and repeats it over and over until we are downstairs in the kitchen.
• Last weekend we lost power for a few hours and I was on my phone checking the update through DTE.  We were outside on the deck and Logan walked up to me and said "Excuse me mommy - let's go play!" 
• Ellis was crying and Logan walked up towards me, then looked at Ellis and said "What's your problem?"

To many parents, some of these things are pretty regular occurrences at a much earlier age, but for us, these are major milestones and I am SO happy with their progress and all the speaking improvements they've hit lately.  

Can you tell what one of Logan's favorite shows is these days?  It's not totally clear, but see if you can figure it out:

And Ellis has a recent fascination with stoplights.  Ever since I taught him red means stop and green means go, he always says it now when we drive up to a light.  Well, a couple weeks ago at the Reaves' birthday party, they got little party favors and his was the Lego Police Motorcycle that comes with a stoplight.  Usually when we get home from daycare they want to play outside, but both days this week so far, Ellis wanted to come inside and immediately opens the bin of Legos and dumps them all out to find the motorcycle (or as he sometimes calls "race bike") and the stoplight.  He then proceeds to say "red - stop, yellow - slow, green - go" and then he races his motorcycle around the kitchen and hallway back into the living room.  Last night, he had to eat with the motorcycle and stoplight close by, so he gave us a little rendition of his stoplight understanding then (in between bites of macaroni and cheese, of course):

That's it for us lately.  We've been up to a lot lately, but since another 2.5 months went by since I've posted last it's almost impossible to fill you in with everything.  Hopefully once school is over I will get back into the swing of it and post more frequently.  Only 8 more days of teaching and I'll be free for a while!!

Happy Birthday Logan and Ellis

Wow, it's been about 2.5 months since my last entry.  I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but didn't realize it had been that long.  It's not that I didn't want to update photos and whats been going on, but it just takes so much freakin time to post and upload photos.  But, the boys' birthday is definitely worth the time.

3 years...I can't believe it.  I continue to be in awe of how much they are learning, especially with their speech lately.  Ellis has always been a bit behind Logan, but during the last couple weeks he has just been spitting out tons of words and even making some phrases.  Such a proud mama!

But anyways, on to their birthday party.  This year, instead of a big bash with family and all our friends, we kept the party small.  Heck, they are only 3, and I really wanted to just chill and enjoy family time.  And it was perfect.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the party and so did the boys.  Thank you, THANK YOU (again) to everyone who made this a great party.

Here is a photo bomb of the party (out of the 100 photos taken - by the way, thank you to Nicole and Mark for photographing!)

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he understood the concept of his new balance bike!

Ellis was more excited about being pushed by grandma!  He's got her wrapped around his finger!  =)

Time to open gifts and the boys were all about it!

Ever since they saw Parker's transformers and Switch-and-Go Dinos at Christmas, I knew they would like some of their own - and they absolutely LOVED the ones they got!

A new train set??? Yes, please!

And you can't go wrong with supersized vehicles!

WHAT??  This huge monster truck moves on it's own??!  Awesome!

They love horses lately, so it was a no brainer to get a horse cake!

Logan was so cute when we sang Happy Birthday.  He started singing it too.  Ellis was more excited to play with the horses that were on the cake.  

Ellis is busy playing with the horse while Logan tried so hard to blow out the candles.  Unfortunately lack of breath and distance from the cake kind of hindered his abilities.

Cakes aren't made to be eaten.  They're made to be played with, right Ellis?

He was doing his horse impression, "NEIGH!" and of course putting the horse on his back feet.  Um, yeah, there were a few extra holes on his side of the cake!

Logan slowly but surely dug into his cake and ice cream.  First the ice cream, then he ate Ellis' ice cream that he didn't touch.  A little later he came back to eat his cake and after everyone left and we were cleaning up, we noticed him polishing off Ellis' cake.  Needless to say he was on quite the sugar buzz.  So cute (probably because this is one of the first times he has shown much of an interest in cake and ice cream)!!!

A sugar-high Logan takes a break to pose with Aunt Nicole.  We couldn't get both boys together for a birthday picture, but these cute family pictures do just fine!

The whole afternoon/night was so, so much fun!  Today, as you probably saw on facebook, I high-taileded it out of work (mainly so I wouldn't get caught up in Tigers traffic) and got the boys from daycare and headed to the park for a bit before dinner.  Troy left just a little early from the game to also beat a majority of traffic and met us up at the park with dinner.  He got McDonalds, which kind of scared me because last summer when we tried giving them some food from there, they showed no interest.  Of course I wasn't too bummed that they didn't like it because I don't want it to be something they always want, but today they ate it up.  And hey, a "fun" birthday dinner from McDonald's isn't so bad, is it?  They played for more than an hour and they were pooped when we decided to head home.  Let's just say that when we put them to bed, they fell asleep very quickly.  What an awesome weekend and a wonderful day today!  

So there is our weekend wrap up.  I hope everyone enjoyed the weather outside today as much as we did.  Fingers crossed that this weather sticks around!  Spring, we are ready for you!

Splash Universe - 1 week later

There was way too much going on this week for me to upload all these pictures earlier, but wow, did we have a blast last weekend.  We headed out to Dundee where Dan and Rosie treated all of us to a weekend at the indoor water park they have as our Christmas gift.

Once we got there we quickly changed into our bathing suits and checked it out for an hour or so before they closed.  Logan was a bit more hesitant (and not sure about the life preserver we put on him), so he clung on to me with all his might.  I literally couldn't take my tank top off to take him in to get used to it, because he wouldn't let go.  Within 5 minutes of watching daredevil Ellis playing, he quickly let go and was off.

The kiddie slide

A little fountain-type area that the kids loved 

Seriously I don't think I have one "clear" picture, but then again I was using my iPhone for a camera and they literally wouldn't stand still long enough for a good picture.  I guess it just shows how much they loved it!

There was also a lazy river that we could float in tubes in, but they liked just floating on their backs and letting the current move them on its own.

Saturday, we headed to Cabelas, which is right across the street, after a morning session in the water.  Of course the boys love their animals, so they thoroughly enjoyed this "trip to the zoo".

Hard to see, but those are turkeys they are looking at.

This was the funniest "exhibit".  After we started to walk away, other people were walking up to look at the elephant and Ellis stuck around to check him out longer.  He started babbling and then looking at these people and babbling more as if he was the tour guide and telling them all about the elephant.  Too funny!

And you can't forget to check out the fun "toys" too.

They were more interested in the vehicle next to them that had the steering wheel in it.  They were just waiting for the kids to get out of that way, to test it out.

Checking out the cot/tent combo.

And yes, they still think that playing in a dog crate is fun!  Weirdos!

Back at the waterpark for the night.  There were a TON of people there (well, it was a Saturday night after all), and there weren't enough life preservers for the little ones, so we stuck around at the kids area where the boys were pretty good playing without giving us heart attacks.  I was more worried about all the parents that weren't around their young kids (seriously who would leave their under 5 year old unattended at a water park?  You'd be surprised at how many there were!)

practicing swimming

Finally people started to leave so we headed one last time to the lazy river and grabbed a tube!

Most of the gang - (Rosie was taking the picture and Brian was enroute to the park).

Thanks again to Dan and Rosie for a great weekend.  We all came home exhausted and slept very well that night.

A Great Day!

Wow, what a day!  Here is our blow by blow (no pun intended)

7am - Troy headed outside to blow snow.  Much to his dismay he didn't do much yesterday (aside from shoveling the deck) and instead wanted to just wait until it was all done snowing instead of going out their multiple times.  So, he paid the price this morning as he was out there for nearly 2.5 hours.  Luckily he wasn't working today either (nearly 20-22 inches in and around Flint)!  We got about 14-16 inches of new snow, but down by the end of the driveway, where the plow had been through a few times, it was really thick - then of course where snow was already drifting, that was as high as 18 inches.

8:15am - I took the kids to their new day care.  I know, I should've kept them home since I had a snow day, but I really wanted them to get adjusted to their new routine.  Plus, I figured that since a lot of people weren't working today (quite a few of the parents of the kids at this day care are teachers), it might be easier for them to get adjusted when there weren't a lot of kids there.  I normally won't be the one taking them (since I leave for work so early), so I wasn't very happy that I had to take them (I really didn't want to see them cry when I left, to be quite honest), but Troy was snow-blowing still, so I couldn't complain.

CRAZY tall mound of snow in the middle of the road near the day care.  Hopefully no one wanted to turn left here!

8:38am - I was on my way home from dropping them off.  There were lots of the workers all in one room with the kids (with maybe 8 kids so far), so I got them situated and Ellis ran off to find a bus to play with and Logan found a plane.  I gave them a kiss and told them to have a good day and that I'd see them later.  Logan started walking to the door, thinking he was leaving with me, but one of the workers distracted him and I took off.  I didn't hear any crying, nor did I see him run after me, so I figured all was good.

10am - Back at home I decided to take this extra day off to my advantage, and went for a run.  On the treadmill of course.  I'm trying to get my ass in shape so today was day 2 and what better way to do it than when the boys aren't home!

11am - Done running and showered.  I decided to call the day care to check in on the boys.  Their report:  They were doing very well.  They did an art project (which they weren't too fond off - no surprise to me) and then they did circle time (what?  we have to sit down and not play with toys?  What kind of place is this?) and of course snack time, which they loved.  LOL.  She said they seemed to be adjusting well, and they were off playing on their own, which is pretty typical of kids when they are new (instead of joining the group of kids when they were trying to do something structured, they were fine with doing their own thing).  She did say that Logan whined a little bit when I left, but he has been ultra-clingy to me lately, so that didn't surprise me either.  So far, so good.

12pm - Troy and I head out to Panera for a little date lunch.  On our way, I got another great phone call - school was cancelled tomorrow too - too cold!  WOO HOO!  So, we had lunch, stopped at Target for a few things, before heading home.

1:30pm - Back at home and after watching Bella try to find a place to pee, I decided to shovel out a little area out for her so she didn't have such a hard time going to the bathroom.

2pm - Finally I relax - watch an episode of House Hunters and then read part of a book I got for Christmas.

4pm - Go get the boys. Troy and I both went to see how the boys did for their first day.  They both got super good reports.  Ellis is really good at cleaning up (I guess we are doing something right at home!) and they both played really well.  Logan spent a good time chatting with Miss Meghan.  She was quite impressed with how they both did for their first day.  Sure, they had been at another day care before, but this is of course a new place to them and I wasn't sure how they'd feel being somewhere new right away.  But I'm really excited about the structure and activities that they will be doing here, versus the random schedule that was at our other daycare.  Even if they didn't get into it much today, within time they will benefit so much from it!  They even did a group art activity that we got to bring home.  HOW CUTE!!

One little boy, Caden, was watching as they were putting their coats on, and Miss Meghan said that the three boys were best buds today.  When we got in the car I asked the boys if they met any new friends and Logan said "Kay Kay".  I couldn't believe it!  Totally sounded like he was trying to say Caden!

Aside from this, lots of talking coming from Logan.  We've been reading a book where he likes to finish the sentences, pointing to lots of things and saying what they are, lots of repeating what we say (better put an end to the profanity around them), and his favorite is "I got you" which sounds more like "I gotchu".  Ellis is picking up quite a bit.  Of course his favorite animal is a horse, which sounds more like "horsch" with an English accent.  He likes the color "blue" and his favorite number he says is "2".  He is trying so hard lately.  In fact, we had a random FaceTime chat with Grandma and Grandpa Bush tonight and I seriously couldn't get a word in!  It was hilarious, well, until I really wanted to say something.

So, that's it for now.  Hopefully everyone stayed warm today and stays warm tomorrow.  Our outdoor thermometer has shown a drop of 7 degrees in the past hour, so I'm happy I'm not out in this frigid air!  Tomorrow I might be out a bit, but not much.  I made an eye appointment for myself (once I realized we didn't have school, I figured I should stop delaying this since it's been 3 years!) and might meet up with a friend that I haven't really gotten to chat with in a while.  Other than that, another run planned and more relaxing.  ENJOY!!

Welcome 2014!

Another year down!  How was your night last night?  Troy and I headed to a good friends house and had a very enjoyable night with her friends and family.

As we start another year, as I mentioned last year, I'm not all about setting resolutions, as some people do.  Last year, I decided to make monthly challenges for myself each month, but I didn't quite get the results I wanted.  Once the month was over, it was rare to actually continue that challenge.  Then once school started back in September, I fell off the bandwagon altogether and stopped even creating a challenge because I was just trying to keep my head above water at the new school I was at.

Regardless, I think I am going to choose a word to help guide me throughout the year.  After having a rough beginning of the school year, a change in schools, and then a good, but busy few holiday weeks, I need to get back in a good groove.  As I talked about back in 2012 in this post, Ali Edwards has an online class called One Little Word that I learned about through Nicole.  I never actually completed the class, but really liked the idea and it got me to thinking about resolutions in a whole new light.  That year, I chose the word "balance".  The boys were only 9 months old and after getting back to work full time that school year it was tricky to balance both work and the boys.  At that age, they were mobile and getting into a lot, yet still heavily reliable on being entertained, but not walking, etc.  I wanted to figure out how to balance time with the boys, work, and have time for myself.  This past year, I chose "challenges" as a way for me to try to make small changes, one month at a time, to try to get lasting results.  Well, that didn't work very well as I mentioned above.  So, that got me to thinking about what I could do this year that would actually stick.

Last night I was thinking about this as we drove over to our friend's parents house for their NYE party.  Nothing really clicked until I heard my friend tell her mom who was venting about something at the time "okay mom, you've got 3 hours and 45 minutes to get all that negativity out.  In 2014, you have got to be more positive!"  And although much of us snickered after she said this, something clicked with me.  Positivity.  I wouldn't say I'm a hugely negative person, but these past 4 or 5 months, I can definitely remember days, or even weeks, where I was quite negative - okay, very negative!  Much of it was related to work and my unhappiness with the school I was working at, but even after I left work I found myself bitching about something.  Even if it wasn't work related, I often found myself snapping at the littlest things just because I was irritated about something that normally wouldn't set me off.  The boys obviously didn't understand any of my complaining, but I'm sure it wasn't very pleasant for Troy or other people I communicated with on a daily basis.  Well, now that I'm back at UPA, things have gotten better work-wise, so there is no excuse there.  But why is it so easy to get engrossed in a conversation with someone and realize that the conversation has turned into a bitch-fest about something or someone?  Now I'm not saying that anything is wrong with venting about something that happened, but there comes a time when enough is enough.  Get it off your chest if you have to, and move on.  We only live once - why live your one life being unhappy?  It's not fair to you or those around you.

So, on to positivity.  What will this mean for me?  First, surround myself with positive people.  Yes, I know we all have our bad days, don't worry, I'm not going to un-friend you if you need to vent because lord knows I will have to at some point to.  That's natural.  But can you think of someone that comes to you for advice and you give your point of view and nothing you say is what they want to hear?  It's like that person is having a pity party and despite providing your thoughts on helping that person, which they asked for to begin with, they don't want to hear it.  If you aren't willing to make a change or improve a certain situation, then either don't ask for advice or don't come to me about it.  There are not enough minutes in my busy day to entertain your negativity.  Because you know that the person that does this doesn't do it just 1 time.  They are a negativity regular.  And don't think you can rub off your negative feelings on me.  Just because you might be frustrated about something, don't assume that because we are friends that I am automatically going to be frustrated along with you. I will listen, but I might not agree, and that's okay!

Second, get things off my chest that are really bothering me, and then let it go.  As I said earlier, I think that venting is normal.  And most of you that know me, know that although I don't enjoy confrontation, I will voice my opinion about something.  If I'm irritated at something, I most likely will tell you if it's on my mind.  Is this a good thing?  A bad thing?  I don't know, but I think I do it because it's just easiest for me to say it out loud and get it off my chest.  One thing I need to start doing a better job though, is to let it go after I say it.  And also realize that sometimes I don't have to actually verbalize it to be done with it.  Maybe I will start journalling instead of always feeling the need to talk - depending on the situation.

Third, assume the best in people.  I know that there are some people out there who lack basic common sense and/or are completely lazy and expect something for nothing, but let's not include them right now.  Just as I don't go to work trying to think of what student I want to make miserable that day (for you non-teachers, some students think that us teachers have it out for them - um, not true - I don't develop plans on how to ruin a child's day, during my morning commute), I don't think that most normal people wake up wondering what they can get away with not doing, how they can blame other people for something they did wrong, what tasks they can put on someone else's plate even though they really could do it themselves, etc.  Again, if there are people who do fit in this category, I'm going to try not to associate with them - or if I have to because of work reasons, be professional, do my thing and be done with it.

I'm sure I could add more and more points as I think about how to be more positive this year, but I'll end for now.  All of this is because the people that matter most to me - my family and friends - deserve to be around a happy version of me.  I deserve to live a happier life, but it's all up to me.

I'll end with this quote I found which I really liked:
Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Francesca Reigler

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2014!