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!!

What we've been up to

It's been a while since I've updated on anything more than my scrapbooking, so it's about time to let you all know what the boys have been up to.

First a little recap on our summer bucket list activities so far (activities we've done are highlighted):

• Have a picnic at a park - Just me and the boys having a picnic at a new-to-us park in Troy.

• Story time at the library
• Go to a parade
• Splash Pad
• Detroit Zoo (maybe Toledo Zoo, too?)
• Camping at the Pinery
• Go to a local beach
• Hit up the farmers market
• Go to a new park - Boulan Park in Troy - not too far, but one we haven't been to before

Why must I have boys that LOVE to try to climb on everything?!? Sure, that's what they are meant for, but it's not too easy for me to help both of them when they both want to climb different ones at the same time!

• Attend the Big Rig Gig - FRIDAY - Anyone interested?
• Ride the trains at Starr Jaycee Park - SATURDAY - Anyone interested?
• See fireworks (or at least play with sparklers) - Nope, this one didn't happen...
• Take a walk (sans stroller) on a local trail - Paint Creek Trail in downtown Rochester - connects right to the park we usually go to.

"Hey mom, are you coming?"  

So excited to have the freedom to walk on their own without having to hold my hand (like they have to when we walk around our neighborhood).  I seriously think that after this walk down the trail, Ellis would rather go for walks and explore, than play on the playground at the park!

• Feed the ducks at the park (without Ellis freaking out!) - At the same park that we play at, in downtown Rochester

Ellis was a bit more skeptical at first (which is why he is so far back), but luckily he could throw his bread far enough to make it to the ducks.

And here is a little video of them feeding the ducks.  In case you are curious, I keep saying "feed the ducky" because I swear Logan said it just before I started the video.  And sorry for the not-so-good footage.  It's not very easy to take video, give them some bread and make sure neither of them go too close to the water!

• Make homemade ice cream - soon, soon!

So, now that I look at our list of things to do for the summer, I feel like we still have a lot more to accomplish in these last few weeks.  Of course I'm not going to push it and force anything to happen, but it kind of reorganizes my thoughts and reminds me of what fun things I thought we could do.

There is quite a bit that we've done, also, that wasn't on the list.  

I'm so proud of Ellis for being willing to try some painting.  Arts and crafts is one thing he was NOT interested in, during the Parent/Tot class we've taken them to as part of their speech classes.  He has actually been much more interested in it than Logan lately!

A visit from Grandma last week.  It was a nice day for the pool so we spend the afternoon in the backyard playing.

These boys love the water (and showing off for Grandma, of course!)

Last week we went to the Bairds, and had a fun day playing in the water.  Cole was so kind to show the boys how to use a slip 'n slide.  Unfortunately for Cole though, once he showed them, they hogged it and wouldn't always give him a turn =( .  We are still working on sharing!  

Here's a little video of the slip 'n slide action.  I think Logan was more excited to sit in the mini "pool" at the end of it, but watching Ellis go down it cracks me up!

Last week we also visited Cari, an old friend from my CMU days, that I haven't seen in way too long.  She has 3 girls (which includes 1 set of twins) and the boys were just in heaven.  Logan just followed them around - hopefully not annoying them too much - and loved watching them play.  Towards the end of our visit the girls put on a show for us and Logan and Ellis got a kick out of joining them in the dance portion of it!  Hopefully we can meet up like that more often! 

Okay, so this picture might not be very appropriate, but I am trying to highlight the fact that Ellis' last two pacifiers are no longer in the house, hence the picture of our garbage.  He hasn't used them (or held them, as he did primarily for comfort after we cut holes in the tips) in quite a long time, so about a month ago, I took them out of his sight altogether to see if he would even notice that they were gone.  NOPE, he hasn't.  So, when I came across them when I was cleaning earlier in the week, I thought it was time to say goodbye.  Bittersweet moment for this mama!  

Aside from our normal pool fun, a lot of time has been spent outside playing on our playground.  The boys usually play on the slide the most, but this week they have been all about the swings.

And thankfully they seem to be done with the throwing sand phase of their life (hopefully).  They actually like to scoop it instead of see how much they can get in their hair!

And last but not least, this picture is a little older, but it cracks me up.  When reading about ways to help kids develop more speech, I read that sometimes kids need to build up their mouth muscles more.  One way to do that is to have them use a straw sippy cup instead of just the basic one.  I frankly never thought of that and never really got them to use a straw one because, well, let's be honest, who wants to clean out straws all the time?  Some of those cups have so many darn parts to them, it's ridiculous!  Well, anyways, I went to the store and bought some trainer straw sippy cups that help you teach a child how to drink from a straw (you push the bottom of the cup and liquid goes up the straw without them sucking - it teaches that they have to do some work to get the liquid up the straw - hence sucking from a straw).  Thankfully, they caught on really quick so I went out and bought some that aren't quite as easy to suck from, to get them used to using those muscles.  What made me laugh about the day I took this picture is that Ellis was having a hard time keeping the cup down so that he could actually suck up water.  They are so used to tipping the cup back to drink from it, but as we all know, if you do that with a straw cup, you won't get much of anything in there, so in this picture, he was trying so hard to keep the cup down so he could get some water to drink.  Too funny, Ellis.

Well, I think that's it for now.  It is way too late and I should be sleeping, but damn this Mt. Dew slurpee hasn't gotten out of my system yet.  

Tomorrow's agenda - continue working on the deck restoration (for as much as the weather will allow us) and have a BBQ with some friends at night.  Once the deck is done I will show before and after pictures, but with the progress we've made so far, I'm very excited to see the finished product.  Good night everyone!

Mission Accomplished!

Yup, I got my last 4 scrapbook pages done and I'm complete with my July goal.  I was actually done a few days ago although we've been so busy with working on redoing/staining the deck that I haven't had any time to post the last few pages.  So, here goes:

Both Logan and Ellis have two "Christmas" pages.  The first page for each of them are really activities in December that lead up to Christmas and the second one is actually Christmas Day.

Logan's first page

Logan's second page

Ellis' first page

Ellis' second page 

For their 2nd birthday, I thought I'd do a 2 page layout but I was actually able to get everything on 1 page!

Ellis' birthday page 

Logan's birthday page

So, there you have it.  I'm pretty pleased with the pages I made and even more pleased to be caught up (with this project!).  I actually do have two more layouts that I could do for each one, but I don't have the pictures for it yet, which is why I didn't include them in this month's challenge.  

Next up, on the scrapbook front, I want to document our camping trip to The Pinery, then of course get caught up again on Project Life.  Let's see how much of this I can get done before, gasp, I go back to work in a few weeks.

Monthly Challenge - Update #2

Woo hoo, I'm staying on track!  Just wanted to share my most recent layouts that I've done.  I'm officially 10 days in and I have 8 of the 12 layouts complete.  All of the layouts below are two page layouts.  What I indicate as page 1 is the left side and page 2 is the right side.  Again, you can click any picture to see it a bit closer!

Ellis' first birthday - Page 1

Ellis' first birthday - Page 2

Logan's first birthday - Page 1 

Logan's first birthday - Page 2

Ellis - Port Crescent Camping Trip - Page 1

Ellis - Port Crescent Camping Trip - Page 2

Logan - Port Crescent Camping Trip - Page 1

Logan - Port Crescent Camping Trip - Page 2

As I work on these pages, I've realized how difficult it is to make two different layouts for each child so they don't have "cookie cutter" pages - which isn't easy.  I'm not 100% loving the last page I did (Logan's Page 2 of camping), but I was getting to the point where I just needed to finish it.  What's nice is that it isn't horribly difficult to add an embellishment later, or totally redo the page if I'm still not feeling it.  I realize that it's sometimes helpful to just walk away from it for a while and come back to it.  

Last up are pages for each one for Christmas 2012 as well as their 2nd birthday - and I still have about 10 days to finish them up!!

Monthly Challenge Update

I know I don't often update my monthly challenge progress, but I'm actually quite pleased at how easy this challenge is becoming, so I thought I'd share!  After 6 days since I started this scrapbooking challenge, I've fully completed 4 of 12 layouts, with the 5th one partially completed (hopefully to be completed tonight after the boys go to bed).  Here are the 4 I've done so far (remember, I admitted I was very behind!) and feel free to click on them to see a closer version of the page:

Ellis' "first" steps (when he really started walking more than crawling)

Logan's "first" steps

Ellis' first hair cut 

Logan's first hair cut

I have to admit that it really isn't too hard to focus enough to do one layout a night - although I think the next few that I do are going to be 2-page layouts (birthdays, Christmas, etc), so it might take a bit more time to complete.  It almost seems less "threatening" when I know I only have to do one layout at a time instead of working on multiple pages at a time.  Tonight I hope to finish a 2-page spread for Ellis' album for his first birthday.  Wish me luck!

Hello July (+11)

Okay, so I've been neglecting July's post for my monthly challenge - kind of on purpose, kind of not.  Last week was busy with getting ready for our camping trip, and with everything going on, I really had no idea what to challenge myself to do.  To be honest, I had so much fun just enjoying my free time in June that I couldn't think of anything more serious to do this month.

So, after a few extra days of thinking of things I'd like to accomplish this month, I finally figured it out...11 days later!  Although I've been pretty good this past month at getting caught up with my Project Life album for this year, I've fallen behind on the boy's individual albums.  For their albums, I've just been focusing on their milestones, holidays, trips, etc, but I haven't worked on them this entire year at all.  After reorganizing photos, I determined that I have about 6 layouts for each of them to complete, so it is my goal in the remaining 20 days this month, to get their albums up to date.  I don't want to rush through each layout just to get it done, but I want to be more focused during my free time after the boys go to bed to spend some time working on them.

Any of you creative people out there can feel free to send their creative juices this way.  This mama is going to need all the creativity I can get.

Our fun weekend

The fun all began at about 6am on Friday morning - when I realized that we had a snow day!!  Woo hoo!  Long weekend!  We obviously didn't have anything planned, but had a nice relaxing day at home.  I did attempt a little Valentine's Day art, but it wasn't too successful - I think the boys were upset that I took them away from the blocks they were playing with at the time, but here is a little snapshot of what Logan did (with a lot of my help):

On Saturday, we went to Delevan's first birthday party.  Oh what fun.  Delevan was all decked out in a cute shirt and bowtie (not many one year olds can sport the tie like he can!) and just LOVED the balloons that decorated the house.

Logan and Ellis made themselves right at home playing with all Del's toys (especially all the balls and the small wagon).

We even got a few cute shots of Logan wearing a hat of Del's and some fake glasses.  Tell me that isn't the cutest!!!!

Of course one of the highlights was watching Delevan dig into his first birthday cake.  I'm not sure how much he actually ate, but after a slow start, he dug right in and made an absolute (but expected) mess.  He definitely had a blast with that cake!

We had a lot of fun and all I could think about was how things are going to be different a year or so from now as we celebrate birthdays next year with two more boys in the mix of friends.  Thanks for a good time, Chandlers!

Today we didn't do too much except for the typical Sunday stuff, and now the countdown begins until next weeks Mid-Winter Break.  Just 5 school days left until we get a week off.  And why do I have a feeling that this is going to be the longest week ever (as it always is right before a break!)???!?!

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!