Spring has sprung

Well I could brag about our awesome spring but since we really didn't have a winter this year its tough to tell when exactly fall ended and spring began. It really feels like summer (80+) around here.

Logan is 2 and a half now. He's a mix of pure silliness and pure trouble. He's not Brenden at all. He's got his own mind and he speaks it regularly. At the same time he's the silliest thing ever. He makes me laugh constantly. He and Brenden are still taking dance at daycare and will be having a recital in the spring. I'm eager to see how it turns out. This will be more formal than tthe one we had back in the winter. They are doing matching costumes and performing on a stage at a middle school. I'm eager to see how much better they are getting. Logan is getting much taller. He and Brenden can wear the same size shorts almost! Now if we could only get him potty trained. He's so stubborn. Whatever you tell him not to do, he'll do it just to prove to you that he's got his own free will.

Brenden is sharp as a tack. He's in Pre-K now and is learning lots. He knows how to count syllables, the days of the week, months of the year and was even telling me how Neptune was the 8th planet the otehr day. He counted to 100 by 5's. Thats the first I've ever seen him count in increments. He's such a sponge when it comes to learning. He's a good kid. He's moody and sensitive at times, but I'm really proud of the big boy he's turning into.

I got them a John Deere Gator off of Craigs List. The boys love it. Logan's legs aren't quite long enough to be the driver but he definitely enjoys being the passenger. They are already dragging out the baby pool and slinging sand all over the deck. This used to drive me nuts by my husband kindly reminded me that sand washes away and only costs $5 a bag and if it makes them happy and entertained then the $5 was well spent and not wasted. True. Hard to give your kids tons of fun for only 5 bucks. So ignore the sand everywhere in the photos, its how they like it!

Here comes a picture overload!! Love my handsome silly boys! Life Is Good.

Prayers

Today I was reflecting on how much my prayers have changed over the past few  years. I remember spending nights begging and pleading with God to make me a mother, to heal my relationship with my husband, to make me strong, to make me understand, etc. Last night as I said my prayers I realized that I no longer pray for God to grant me anything. I say prayers of thanks, for my family, for making me a mother, for making me stronger through difficult times, for making me smart and hard working, for giving me a good job, for everything. I pray now for the people around me, with problems WAY bigger than my own. We don't always understand why the Lord gives us difficult times, but if we can have faith and push through the hurt and the pain, we come out on the other side better, stronger, smarter, more empathetic, and more thankful than ever. I am so thankful for my life. I don't have it perfect, but I have too many wonderful things to focus on the things that aren't perfect.

Thank you Lord for making me the person I am today! And thank you for blessing me with the best 2 sons a mother could ever beg and plead for! I am SO Blessed! Amen.

As promised - Here are the photos from B-man's birthday party

My baby buddies

Blow out the candles

Homemade pirate cups

Goodie boxes

Walk the plank matey!

My 4 yr old love!

Daddy's boy

Pin the tail on Skully (give mama props for the free-hand sketch of skully!)

Jake cake

He is beyond happy that its his birthday. I LOVE this shot!

Make a wish sweet boy....

Logan "i dont care if its YOUR birthday, scoot over and gimme some cake!"

Icing face

Birthday presents!

Dont ya love his pirate sweater <3

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy. I LOVE you so much!!!!!!!

Speedy update

I just wanted to take the time to give a speedy update and post a few pics from my phone. We celebrated Brendens forth birthday recently. 4? Really?!?! How did that happen already? He's such a sweet big boy now. We had a pirate themed party for him. It was a lot of fun. I will add pictures later. I want to make them smaller for the. Log so they don't take so long to upload. I recently cut my hair short and really love it. It's fun and bright and easy to style. I needed an upgrade to me! Nothing new with the boys. They are getting bigger and smarter by the minute. I love them to death. They really make me feel whole My pirate boy


Tackle daddy!!!








Sweet Logie


Mommys new hair!


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Wow, I am WAY behind!

So much time has passed!! The holidays kept us super busy and blogging sort of fell to the bottom of my to-do list. The boys are absolutely wonderful. Here are some updates:

Brenden
Brenden is already in the 4yr old class at daycare even tho he's not 4 yet. They needed room in the 3's class so he, and 2 other boys, moved up early. I constantly get complimented on how smart Brenden is. I had a parent come up to me and ask me what my secret was because when she picked up her child she saw Brenden reading with the teacher. The teacher said that B was one of 3 kids in the 3yr class that knew all his ABC's (as well as his phonics!) He doesn't look anything like a little baby anymore. He is officially in big boy land. He still lets Mommy baby him though :)! He's finally catching up on his size I do believe. He's always been several months behind in his clothing sizes but he's actually outgrowing some 3T stuff and ready to move into his size 4's. We're having to really work with him lately because he sees Logan in the full throws of his terrible twos and so he thinks he can get away with the same behavior. So its definitely been challenging trying to remind him that being a big boy isn't just having mroe rules, it also means he gets to do big boy things (like play with his Leap Pad that he got for Christmas) that Logan cannot do. Some days he does better than others, but all in all he's an outstanding little boy.

Logan
Logan is 2... enough said lol. He is rotten anyway and 2 just makes it worse. Now I say rotten with a smile on my face because he's that "i'm trying to be cute and funny" rotten. He pushes his boundaries for sure and knows just when to smile and laugh to stay out of trouble. We are 99% purged of the Sassy. We have just been gradually tapering off to the point where he doesn't really ask for it anymore and we only whip it out if he's inconsolably upset. Every now and then he'll find one and plop it in his mouth and ends up taking it out all on his own because it gets in his way. I'm glad it hasn't been too terrible of a process. I feared it would be rough! He has great vocabulary skills. He talks in full sentences and has a great grasp of using verb tense, pronouns, etc. He LOVES to talk.. and talk... and talk lol. Brenden will say "Mama, Logan won't stop talking to me" lol. Join the club Brenden.... Its really cute to hear him talk like a big boy but be so tiny. He'll tell you stories and make things up. He'll talk about something he saw on TV like its happening in real life right now. We're always hearing how Swiper is not very nice for taking something. He loves to dance and smile... that boy smiles ALL the time. I love it.

They are both turning into big boys on me. I really miss my babies, but I do enjoy sleeping through the night finally :) I also like that they can both tell me what is wrong versus trying to guess. So I guess there are some things to be gained with age.

The boys got dance lessons at Daycare and did a dance recital this year for the holidays. It was too precious for words. I'll include some various pictures of them from the holiday season!

Halloween and a beautiful autumn

And once again I find myself doing a blogger catch-up! The boys keep me busy as well as work and housekeeping and my photography hobby.

The boys had a great halloween. Logan dressed up like a mad scientist and Brenden was the doctor. This was a pretty easy costume because Brenden is my sensitive caring child and Logan is my wild and crazy child.

The following photo even made the top "favorites" on the weekly I Heart Faces photo challenge for the week of Halloween:

The boys have been loving the cooler fall weather and all of the cool leaves to run and play in. We've had some amazing fall colors this year.

The boys continue to bring me joy every day. Logan's little personality is just erupting by the day. He sings and dances and tries to dish out some miniature atitude. Its hard to take him seriously when he's so darn cute. The kids loved going trick-or-treating. Brenden managed to charm the pants off of everybody and got more than his fair share of candy. He knows how to work those big brown eyes! Logan got a little scared of some of the costumes and decided he'd rather ride in the wagon and eat a "walley-pop" instead.

This has probably been the most trying time of parenthood for me too. The kids are both very strong willed, full of atitude and the need to be right. They fight constantly over things. Logan is a little bully! Brenden is so sensitive and Logan is so mischevious and its a horrible combination. Logan grabs B's stuff and takes of running and laughing his head off with little care that his big brother is in the background crying. So we're trying to not only toughen up Brenden but reel in Logan's crazy side. Its amazing how you can parent 2 children the exact same way and have them turn out complete opposites of each other!

Yesterday in Church Logan made the whole congregation laugh. They were doing a hymn after the offering and just as the hymn ended and the church observed a moment of silence Logan let out a booming "YAAAYYY!" for the choir's lovely song. Everybody died laughing. It was too precious!

We're trying to potty train Brenden through the night. He's perfectly trained during the day. We always put a pull up on him at night for safe keeping, but its becoming obvious that B is relying on that pull up to keep him from having to get out of bed at night to use the potty. Ah.. good ol' hind sight... always 20/20. Guess we know better than to let Logan off easy with the night time pull up when his time comes. Now B is wetting the bed and saying he doesn't want his underwear at night. I'm hoping we can work past this soon. I bought some training pants from Target. They were a gerber brand size 3T but I swear a 10yr old could wear them! They were huge and if anybody has ever met my son, you need a microscope to see his tushie! Its the tiniest thing ever! So I need to try ot find another brand or even a cloth diaper so he can feel himself get wet without soaking his entire bedding/pj's.



Two big boys

Once again I've gotten behind in my blogging. The boys keep me busy!

We've been loving this cool fall weather. It's so nice to let the boys run and play outside. We took them to a pumpkin patch and they loved it. Every day Logan asks if we are going to he pumpkin patch again. They had baby goats there to pet and feed and the boys loved that. They got free apple cider at the end and the managed to charm some free refills from the pouring lady.

Logan loves being in the 2 yr room at daycare. He loves that he can see brendens playground on the other side of the fence. He's getting his canine teeth right now and this is probably the grumpiest I've ever seen him. He cries every evening. It's so pitiful.

Brenden is reading really good lately. So proud of his enthusiasm to learn. As much as I hats video games I have to admit some educational games on my iPhone have taught him both reading and writing.

I'll post more photos later but here is what I have on my phone










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