Hello December!

Today was the beginning of our holiday decorating.  As I mentioned before, I'm not a huge decorator ever (notice that we barely have anything hanging on our walls after living here for 4 years!), so my holiday decorations are still pretty minimal, but it's a start.  

Last year I put the tree up while the boys were napping, but I thought maybe they'd like to "help" this year.  So, here goes nothing...

Up goes the tree,

 and what are the boys excited about?  

 yup, the box that the tree is stored in!

So, it was up to me to put the lights up and decorate it - no help from them.  They did like it all lit up and decorated though, once I was done.  

I was trying to get Logan to be gentle, so he said "gentle" every time he hit an ornament.  Looks like we have to work on what "gentle" means!

"TREE" says Logan!

And just like last year, Ellis loves his ornaments!

When the boys took their nap, I turned the lights of the tree off but once they got up, Ellis was quick to notice that they weren't on, so back on they went!

Here's how the mantle turned out.  I feel like it's missing something, but I'm not sure what yet.  I feel almost like I do when I make cards - that something is missing, but if I add something else, it will be overdone.  So, for now, it is what it is and perhaps I will add/change something once I figure out the missing link (and yes, I need to fix the overhanging snow on the righthand side)

Here's to the start of a good holiday season!

30 Days of Thanks!

What I am thankful for this month (as close to being in order, as possible!):

01: A relatively easy last day of work at UYA.  Mom - thank you for watching the boys today since it was not easy for Troy nor me to take the day off of work.

02: Val - thank you for heading to UPA with me for the morning/afternoon to help me set up my new classroom.  Jen - thank you for coming up to the school to open it up for us to get some work done!

03: having friends and family with kids around the same age as Logan and Ellis.  I love getting together and seeing all the kiddies play together

04: an easy first day back at UPA.  So happy to see my old peeps on the 4th floor (Kelli and Pam) and see some familiar student faces,

05: Starbucks! It's Election Day so we don't have students today.  We were told that breakfast would be served for us, but something happened where it wasn't delivered.  So, in between meetings, Pam and I made a run to Starbucks.  I don't think I sucked down a frappuccino so fast in my life!

06: A work-night with no work to do.  Ever since the beginning of the school year, once the boys have gone to bed, I've always had some sort of work to do.  Tonight, I sat down to watch "The Voice" recordings while enjoying some Cold Stone Creamery - no work to do tonight! 

07: Troy - thankful for him allowing me some "me" time this weekend since he will be hunting next weekend.

08: follow up from #7 - having my Christmas cards made already.  My "me" time consisted of going to mom's house and working on my cards.  Except for putting them in the envelope, they are done!

09: thinking before I spoke. There is a bit of daycare "drama" going on and it all started this weekend.  While I could have responded very matter-of-factly to what I would consider a very rude email, I figured that it would just be best to talk it over in person when I pick the boys up on Monday so that my tone wasn't taken the wrong way.

10: a decent commute. We got our first burst of snow today and all I could think about on my way to work was "dang, how long is it going to take to get home today?"  The first snowfall usually comes with people forgetting to know how to drive in snow.  Luckily the dusting didn't throw anyone off too much and I got home in a decent amount of time.

11: an awesome sunset coming home from work.  So calming to drive through the neighborhood and see such beautiful colors in the sky.  I did take a picture of it while stopped at a stop sign, but the picture sure doesn't do it justice.

12: boys that play well together.  Okay, so it's not all the time, but I loved seeing the boys work together to take their train tracks off its table and make a much bigger track loop on the ground.  No pushing or taking - just good, fun playing and working together.

13: Logan and Ellis improving with their speech.  It seems to be a slow moving process, but Logan has really picked it up a lot this past week or so.  Julie, their speech teacher, has even documented some things during their class today of his improvement.  He is even starting to say some two word phrases.  Ellis isn't saying as much, but is gabbing a heck of a lot more than he was, which is also a good sign.

14: my mother-in-law.  Rosie, thank you for coming out and staying with me and the boys for the next couple days while Troy is up north hunting.  The boys love spending time with you and of course I like the company and help!

15: a girls night out.  I can't remember how long it's been, but some good company from UPA and UYA got together tonight to hang out in Mexicantown for dinner and drinks.  We MUST do this more often!

16: one last decent weather day to clean up the leaves in the yard.  With Troy being up north hunting and me being by myself with the kids today, I took advantage of the time that the boys napped to mow the lawn/pick up the leaves.  It must be the OCD side of me that loved seeing the yard all cleaned up!!

17: keeping our power during the huge storm and wind we had.  A couple flickers, but no major loss.  I always feel bad for Nicole and Mark, who seem to lose power quite often during storms like these, and unfortunately I take it for granted that we have it.

18: watching the boys so engaged in number activities.  With Logan's improvement in speech, he loves saying the numbers 1-10.  Tonight while I was working on some school work, I pulled out a couple number activities and both Logan and Ellis were completely engaged for so much longer than they were over the summer when I tried them.  Happy to see some of the busy bag activities I've had for so long, be put to good use.

19: Professional Development.  After being at UPA only 2 weeks, I was asked to go to a professional development around data.  My favorite!  (yes, I'm a nerd - I'll admit it!) Although the ideas I got are ones that will take a ton of planning to do, I'm excited to use what I learned to hopefully push my students and fill in the gaps that they have from previous years in math.

20: impromptu visits.  Power is still out at the Reaves' house so they came over after Morgan got out of school to hang out, eat dinner, and visit.  Thankfully for them, just before they left, they got word that their power was back on.

21: beer.  I'm not a huge fan of field trips - not that I don't like them, but for some reason they wear me out so much more than normal school days.  So, although I never drink a beer after I get home from a normal day of work, it was just one of those days where I cracked one open to have with dinner.

22: Beer Friday.  I always love having an "excuse" to get together with the Chandlers.

23: family gatherings.  Since the Reaves are going up to Lansing for Thanksgiving this year, our side of the family got together for the afternoon/evening.  We do a Secret Santa exchange with the 6 of us adults, so we pulled names, had some pizza and watched the kids play around.  Yet another thing I wish we did more often!

24: a short work week.  It's always easier to look forward to the week ahead when there are fewer than 5 work days in it!

25: Kelli, thanks for taking my last class today so I could leave early and go check out a new day care with the kids.  Also, thankful that the boys really seemed to like this new day care so that we don't have to keep searching for other possible places to take them.

26: terminating our current day care.  I know it doesn't seem like I should be thankful for such a negative sounding thing, but I was glad to make it official with our provider.  I wasn't looking forward to telling her but I wanted to get it over with since we have to give a 2 week notice.  After hearing her comments once I told her, I am 100% sure it was the right move (nothing negative about the kids, but more her business-side of things).

27: an easy day at work.  Between a lot of students being absent because of Thanksgiving tomorrow, and students having little parties in other class, keeping them out of my class, it was an even easier day today than I thought it would be.  I'll take it!

28: seeing the boys with their grandparents.  I was so happy to have both sets of grandparents here for Thanksgiving.  The boys had a blast and of course they love all the attention they get from all 4 of them.

29: Black Friday sales.  I did head out for a few hours yesterday morning and not too many stores were terribly hectic.  I got a few good deals for gifts but was most excited about my Michael's purchase.  I'm not exactly the most savvy with decorating, but I got a few things to decorate our house a bit more for Christmas.  Let's just see if my vision works out in reality!

30: internet shopping.  oh how I love amazon.com - enough said!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow - time to put the tree up, decorate it, and take out my minimal Christmas decorations.  I'm interested in seeing how the boys react to the tree since they were a little hesitant at first last year with it, but then got much better after a day or two.  I'm looking forward to the holiday season this year with the boys.  I'm know they still don't totally understand the whole Santa/Christmas thing yet, but I LOVED watching their faces tonight as we watched "Elf on the Shelf" that we recorded on TV yesterday.  Ellis was so excited and I don't think Logan even blinked during the entire show.  Perhaps we'll have our first non-screaming visit with Santa this year?  We shall see!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay tuned to updates with our holiday happenings in the days and weeks to come.  Happy December!

(And just a little video of the boys showing their love for each other !  Of course they did it spontaneously just a minute before, but we had to prompt them along so I could get it on video.  I'm sure they will hate every second of this video when they are older!!)

Tired yet?

For many kids, giving a bath is soothing and calming and prepares them for bed.  For Logan and Ellis it does quite the opposite.  Here's a little snippet of our post-bath time tonight:



What else is going on?  Last week was a pretty busy week as I returned back to UPA (YAY!!) and had to get situated there with trying to figure out what my students did and did not know. I usually like to prepare each week the week before so obviously I was a little behind for the first couple of days.  Only a week later and it's just like riding a bike.  It's like I never left.  My days are much more stress-free and the little issues I have are nothing to complain about.  This past weekend I actually had quite a bit of free time and made my Christmas cards.  So glad to have those already done!

The boys have been loving anything and everything vehicle-related.  They love their hot wheels and other cars they have and also love playing with the trains, planes, and helicopter toys they have.  Logan has has been saying more and more words lately, which is awesome - lots of repetition of words that he hears.  He is even putting two words together to make simple sentences - up stairs, open door, etc.  Ellis is making more sounds but not saying as many words. His favorite lately is "mine".  It almost sounds like "ma" so I was excited when he kept saying what I thought was "mom" but then when he grabbed my phone and said "ma", I realized that he really meant "mine" as in my phone.  Crazy boy got a little reality check there!  Ellis is a big fan of making animal noises although some of the noises are a little off, but I get his drift!

Troy's mind has been focused on hunting lately.  Buck fever, is that what they call it?  After work on Thursday, he will be heading up to Cadillac to hunt with a buddy of his.  Lots of luck to him in hopes of him being successful and having some venison to bring home.

Well, thats about it really.  Here are a few pictures from a couple weekends ago when the Reaves and Chandlers came over for the UM/State game:

Ellis getting some lovin' from Aunt Nicole

A whole group shot of the kids

Logan totally cracking up from Morgan tickling him with the Cat in the Hat.

Ellis' turn getting some tickles from Morgan/Cat in the Hat

Talk to you all soon!!

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone is staying somewhat dry this Halloween.  I love seeing all the pictures from everyone on Facebook, showing the cute little kids all dressed up!  We opted out of any activities tonight.  The boys don't really understand the whole trick-or-treating concept yet, and since we knew the weather was going to be less than desirable tonight, we went to a "trunk-or-treat" event last night which was less than a mile from our house.  The boys LOVED it.  Of course they got a little spoiled when they were handed a bowl to choose from (Logan again became a little greedy when he decided to take more than one piece), and they weren't very happy when people tried to put the candy in their pumpkin for them.  They wanted to put it in there themselves.  Of course I only had my phone camera so lighting wasn't exactly wonderful, but here are a few pictures:

"Let's get this party started"

Hmm - what piece looks good?!?

Ellis' turn to grab a piece! 

Between last night's fun and the other Halloween festivities a couple weeks ago (seen here), and knowing they were having a Halloween party at daycare today, I knew they would be okay with not going out tonight.  They don't even know the difference.  Plus, they don't eat any of the candy anyway, so I think Troy and I are set for a while!

They must have had a blast at the party at day care too, because I was told that they fell right asleep at nap time and around 7:30 tonight Logan was already yawning, which is unheard.  Usually he is the one that takes longest to fall asleep, but not tonight!  

On another note, tomorrow is the big day - my last day at UYA.  Although I'm very happy to be going back to UPA, I am not exactly looking forward to sharing the news with my students tomorrow.  Although some of them are a handful, I really will miss quite a few of them.  Yesterday a student gave me a nice drawing saying I was the best math teacher.  Although much appreciated, I had this horribly guilty feeling knowing that I will be telling them tomorrow that I'm not returning.  Bittersweet, that's for sure.  As for the awesome 7th grade teachers I worked with, yes, it will be sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I will be able to reconnect with them every so often since some of them are friends with teachers at UPA.  For this weekend (once I can relax after moving all my shit back to UPA), we plan on hanging out with friends to watch the U of M/Michigan State game on Saturday.  A perfect excuse to relax and have a few beers, right?

Well, I'm exhausted and I have a feeling I'm going to need all the rest I can get tonight to deal with tomorrow.  Good night, for now!

Fall is in the air

Last weekend Troy was up north prepping for hunting next month.  The boys and I hung out and also headed up to Target for a last minute diaper run.  I'm excited to report that they are more interested in arts and crafts activities and have been spending considerable amounts of time coloring and playing with playdoh, among their most recent addiction to playing with cars, trucks, trains ALL.THE.TIME!

Logan was more excited to stack the empty playdoh containers than playing with the playdoh itself.

Last Saturday afternoon, we went to Sheila's for a Halloween playdate, filled with pumpkin painting, games, and yummy food.

Again, I was shocked that Ellis and Logan both willingly painted pumpkins.

Pumpkin bowling (although Ellis really wanted to throw the pumpkin instead of roll it!)

"Throw the beanbag in the candy corn" game

Witch hat ring toss

We all had such a good time that the boys didn't want to leave.  Thanks again, Sheila for hosting such a fun party!

This week, the boys had some fall fun playing in the leaves at day care.  

Today was Trick-or-Treating at the Village.  Logan warmed right up to the fact of picking candy out of a bowl and putting it in his pumpkin.  Luckily he's so cute that when he grabbed more pieces than he was supposed to, they let him!  =)

They even had a petting zoo at the event today.  Logan was quite interested in the animals and even tried throwing hay at the alpacas to feed them.

Logan was VERY interested in the miniature horses - Ellis not so much.

Happy boys - had fun with our little Trick or Treating fun today.  Poor Ellis didn't want to leave and was upset when he realized we were walking back to the car.

As for the rest of the weekend, I scrapbooked at mom's house with Nicole Friday night and Saturday.  We've all been so busy the past few months that we haven't had our monthly crops together, but thankfully we fit one in this month!  I got caught up with Project Life for the pictures I had printed, and realized I had to alter my plans for the album I was going to use to document our summer bucket list activities.  Not a huge adjustment and I even worked on it a bit this morning, so hopefully I can get that done before winter - haha!  

Well, here's to a new week!  I hope everyone is enjoying what seems to be the last day of decent weather before chillier, rainier (did anyone else gasp at the snow flakes in the forecast for Thursday?!?) weather takes over this week.

Another week down

This week has been full of ups and downs (again).

• Monday - yet another rough day at work
• Tuesday - Ellis came home from day care with a fever
• Wednesday - talked with the CEO of the school I worked at last year to try to get my foot back in the door in that district (yay!), but come home to find out that Ellis' fever has not only gone down, but despite giving Tylenol all day, actually went as high as 104!  At 8pm before bed, I called our pediatrician who was on-call and she suggested that we take him in to After Hours Pediatrician Care (works with the ER) at Beaumont.  Luckily it wasn't anything major but a virus that is going around, but no day care for the rest of the week so he can fully recover.
• Thursday - home with Ellis during the day.  Logan was a super-duper good boy and went to day care all by himself and did really well there.  Me, on the other hand, took advantage of Ellis' 4 hour nap (which is unheard of, but not surprising since he wasn't feeling well) and got a TON of stuff done around the house and for work.  
• Friday - Ellis spent the day with Grandma Bush and Logan had another good day flying solo at day care and I actually had a pretty good day at work myself.
• Saturday - laying low at home.  I was hoping to head out to the cider mill or something, but with Ellis not being 100% yet (still a little cranky and clingy), I really didn't want to push it even though his fever was pretty much gone.  We spent the afternoon coloring, having an impromptu FaceTime session with Nicole, Morgan, and Parker, playing with cars and blocks, and reading.  

Not many pictures were taken this week, but here are a few videos.

#1 - Guitar jam session with daddy:

#2 - I pulled out the alphabet flash cards while Logan was eating his snack and off he went naming off the letters.

Happy Sunday everyone!  

Yes, we're alive over here

Long time, no talk -- sorry!  After working at my new job for nearly a month (with actual students), I'm realizing it was the worst career change I've ever made and I'm kicking myself daily for it.  Because of all the craziness, my emotions have been a roller coaster the past few weeks and I've either been so busy staying afloat with work stuff or just so mentally exhausted I haven't thought about blogging at all.  So, sorry...

Instead of focusing on the negative work side of things (although, I hold the slightest bit of hope that the stars will line up just perfectly so that I don't have to stay there all year), I will share with you some of our fun around here.

Tomorrow, not only is our one and only girl, Bella, turning 4 years old, but the boys will officially be 2.5!  Wow, how time flies!  After the first few weeks of day care being up and down (only because of the boys back and forth illness), they have gotten into a great routine there.  There were some days that Troy would drop them off and they would be a little whiny, but now they run in her house, give hugs and sit down to watch a cartoon while breakfast is being prepared.  They have been chatting a lot more - with Logan adding a lot of words to his vocabulary, and Ellis just being more vocal in general but not saying as many recognizable words.  I think Ellis has always been a month or two Logan as far as talking goes, so it isn't much of a surprise to me.  Today at lunch, Logan wanted more beans so he pointed to them and looked at me and said "beans".  Last week when he was clapping after doing something, he would clap a few times and say "clap clap" as he did it.  Too funny!  Logan also has a cute little alphabet chant that he says that I'm dying to get on video, but never have my phone around when he does it.  I'd say he says about 3/4 of the alphabet and knows even more than that when asked to recognize them.  They've also gotten better with drinking from an open cup, one skill they are really working on at day care.  Instead of just throwing the cup back and spilling all the liquid, they are really careful to tip the cup back and watch the liquid in the cup.  Here's a little video of Ellis yesterday at breakfast:

Lately, their favorite toy has turned into anything vehicle-related.  I got them a hot wheels track to play with since they had a few hot wheels and they play with that all the time.  They also love their train tracks downstairs to play trains on and even love wheeling their bigger cars off the tables down stairs.  Logan was hogging all the vehicles one day and put them all in his big car and drove them around.  Poor Ellis didn't realize where they all went!  

The chairs were on the table after vacuuming, but Ellis thought the legs of the chairs
were great obstacles for the cars to drive through!

They also love music.  Seema (the daycare provider) has a piano and lets the boys "play" on it.  A few weeks ago she sent me a video (although when videos are transferred it doesn't look very well, so I will spare you this one) of them playing on it.  Logan was more beating on it, but Ellis hit a key, listened to it, then hit more, just one at a time.  She thinks he has an ear for music!  =)  I do know they love it and Ellis is mesmerized by songs and videos we play.  Last week we had a little dance party in the basement and they just went crazy dancing - of course, right before bed!  Gotta get rid of all that energy! 

This weekend we've started some fall clean up outside.  Lawn mowed, shrubs trimmed (with the goal of removing a few more before it gets too cold), summer toys put away, etc.  I decided to take the boys to the zoo while Troy started on the cleaning.  I feel like I haven't been able to spend as much quality time with them after work as I'd like, so we had some mommy-son time together.  They were so excited to be there - it's been nearly 2 months since we've been - that I couldn't walk fast enough to keep up with them.  Since we planned only a short morning visit, I didn't take the stroller.  We went one other time in the summer without a stroller since most of the time they wanted to walk anyway, and they loved it.  Plus it's one less thing for me to worry about keeping my eyes on when they just wanted to walk anyway.  So, we made a quick stop at the fountain before checking out the animals.  Logan quickly came to me for a penny to throw into the fountain, apparently remembering the last time we were there and Lucas threw one in.  Once they both threw one in, we were off yet again.  

We made it to all the popular animals, spending more time checking out the giraffes.  It was about feeding time so they were up close and Ellis' eyes were just glued to him.  We also spent a bit of time with the polar bears.  We were so lucky to have barely walked into the exhibit and he floated right over us a few times!  Then after leaving the main exhibit, we walked over to one that was off to the side that allowed you to see both under the water and out of the water.  This was the best part.  The polar bear swam right up to the glass and Ellis and Logan got an up front look at him.  Again, they didn't take their eyes off of him and as he swam away, their heads followed him for as long as they could see him. Awesome!

And off they go!

Checking out the llama!

So cool to see Nuka swim right above us!

Last time they went they discovered the icy wall.  They loved it again this time too!

In a different exhibit where Nuka swam right up to the window for an up close and personal look!

Once they started slowing down (yes, they literally ran around most of the time), we stopped for a snack before heading to the front to leave.  When Ellis realized we were leaving, he threw a wonderful fit, prompting me to pick him up and keep walking.  Logan then threw a fit (oh lucky me) so I unintentionally became the woman carrying both of her 30 lb children and the diaper bag, out of the zoo to limit anymore melt downs.  All in all, they had a great time and I'm so glad we made the impromptu trip on such a beautiful day.

After lunch, it was more clean-up in the backyard, for Troy, while I plugged away at work stuff.  Yippie!  We spent the rest of the afternoon outside, the boys playing and Troy cleaning up, and then called it a day.  The boys were exhausted when it was time for bed - the hint of a very successful day!  =)

Shocking that Ellis would let Troy put his sunglasses on him before we went outside.  He doesn't usually like things on his head or face, like Logan, but he thought this was pretty cool!

Today is a bit more relaxing - the rain obviously isn't allowing us to finish up outside.  I got a few work things done this morning and after the boys wake up from their nap we are going to close all the windows and buckle down to cut their hair.  It is WAY too long, but we always put it off due to the murder-like screams they have when we do it.  Hopefully our neighbors don't hear them and wonder what the heck is going on!

I can't believe it is practically October already, but hey, 1 month of work down and only 9 more to go.  Gotta look on the bright side of things, right?

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and I will try my best to keep in touch more!