Hello Again....

Once again its been an eternity since I've updated the blog. I suppose that says I'm spending more time creating memories with my boys than I am documenting them - but I do love documenting their lives!

Life has been pretty busy. We started the boys in daycare. Daycare in this area is nothing like the daycares in the NC area. So its tough for me to accept a different level of childcare. That's not to say that its not good, its just not the 'style' that I'm used to.

Logan has been all about Mommy lately. He is glued to me almost always and I can't say that I don't love it completely. However, he's not very nice to his daddy when I can't be there to do things for him. So we're working on that. He's still our crazy, wild, funny boy. Yesterday his new teacher asked me if Brenden was so funny too and we said no (not in a bad way, but Logan is just hilarious). She was telling us all the funny things he says to them and he does it with so much personality. He talks like he's a teenager or something. She told me that he found a hair and gave it to her, but explained very carefully that it could NOT be his hair because all of his hairs were still on his head. He things its so funny to run out of the room and strip down to his underwear and run back in and say 'tah-dah!' And just smile and laugh. He mostly has no fear at all - except for animals and wind. The wind thing is really crazy. He's terrified that our belongings will blow away and will flat out refuse to go outside on a windy day.

Brenden is becoming a little man before my eyes. He loves to sit on my lap and play games on the ipad with me. He likes to help out and help his little brother. He's very protective of his little brother. He always says Logan is making him nervous when he's not being 'safe.' He's so eager to please and just be an equal to his parents. I miss him being a baby but I love that we can just talk and have our own conversations. He's got the greatest laugh and smile. I love making him laugh until tears come out of his eyes. He is just a sweet and kind-hearted boy.

We are trying to get the pool ready for summer. I'm new to this whole pool ownership thing so I'm trying to figure out some of the basic things - like connecting the pump to the filter. Our deck was severely rotted when we moved into the house so we knew we'd need a new pool deck. We didn't go as big as the original deck. We just couldn't justify spending that much on a deck that would only be used a few months of the year. The builders did a great job. They also made it more child safe. The railing is higher, the pickets are closer together, and the gate is self-closing, self-latching. My goal is to have both boys knowing how to swim by the end of the summer. So I hope that works out. Neither of them likes to get their face wet so I know that will be the first thing they will need to learn, getting their faces under the water and not panicing. Lord grant me the peace of mind to get through this! Even with all the efforts to make this child-safe, I sitll will not feel completely safe with being a pool owner until they both know how to at least doggie paddle to the edge of the pool .

The Final Day of a 4 Year Old

I have to fight back the tears as I realize today is the LAST day my baby boy will be 4. He is going to be a big 5 year old boy tomorrow. Five just seems like that line in the sand between a preschooler and a big boy. I suppose I have to let him grow up sooner or later! I just didn't expect it to happen so fast.

He's a great big brother and a super smart kid. He takes great care of his little brother Logan. I pray they always get along as well as they do today. It's so fun to just sit back and let them play. Their imaginations just run wild. They love the Imaginext dvd that came with their castle toy. And they love to pretend that they are Octonauts. I actually got to watch HGTV the other day without interruption because they sat in their room and played by themselves for a good hour.

I can't say enough great stuff about my little Brenden. He's so sweet and loving. He loves to hug and snuggle. He really likes to please people. He's got a really big heart. He's also crazy smart. He just absorbs information like a sponge. He has been reading for some time now and he's now spelling out words just by listening to the sounds he hears. He's got a good grasp of basic math skills (addition and subtraction) and can figure out things quickly in his head. Like if there are 6 of something and you give him 3 he can immediately tell you that there are 3 left without really having to do the math. I worried that with him staying home from school he'd lose some of that sharpness, but he finds other ways to take in knowledge. This really proves that his learning is all his doing. I can't take credit for it lol. He loves educational tv... Super Why, WordWorld, etc.

Tomorrow I'll take the day off and we'll celebrate our Brenden as a family, then Saturday we'll have a party for him. Being his mother has been an absolute blessing and joy. He's been my little buddy since the day he was born and placed in my arms for the first time. Sometimes when he looks at me I still see that tiny little 5 lb peanut that slept beside me all those years ago. I know that age is just a number and he will be the same boy tomorrow that he is today. He will continue to light up my life and teach me to love in ways I never thought possible. My little IVF miracle is just that.. a miracle. I love you my little 4 year old boy! Tomorrow I will love my 5 year old big boy even more!

2013

I'm trying to do a better job keeping up with my posts. The holidays are over and I was back at work on Wednesday. I felt pretty rested and refreshed so it wasn't too bad.

Sean is working towards a better schedule with the boys. Staying at home can make it easy to let the boys drive the schedule. He's trying to give Brenden time to read and Logan time to learn writing and letter sounds. He isn't as focused as Brenden is. Logan enjoys physical activities, Brenden enjoys thinking activities.

Brendens 5th birthday is quickly approaching. It doesn't seem possible. It's been a great 5 years though. He's a special little guy! I'm still trying to figure out what kind of party to have for him. He wanted Octonauts but there isn't much out there for that. He and Logan love the 3 Musketeers and their Imaginext castle so I was considering doing a knight theme. He'll be happy no matter what.

Here are a few photos from the new year so far

"I stayed up too late New Years Eve"




Logan insisting to clean up his own mess after Art time.



Playing Mickeys Road Rally on iPad



Thursday I had to get a crown put on my tooth and the boys got me some "feel better flowers"


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A year in reflection

My poor negelected blog :(  Really, it's not my fault. A while back I started getting error message saying my space was full, even though it wasn't and I couldn't add photos anymore. I'm still trying to figure that out but I did find on Picasa support that it is a 'known issue'... not really sure how that helps but at least I know its not my own insanity keeping me from posting pictures.

As I sit here in front of my computer on New Year's Eve I think of what an amazing year it has been. My boys have grown up so much and Logan seems to surpassed the phase of toddler into child. I officially have KIDS, not babies. This does not stop me from babying them though! It was a year of highs and lows. It was a year of loss as I said farewell to my friend Maria way too soon. She was truly an angel here on earth and I know she'd fulfilling God's greater purpose for her now, but I cannot help but feel sadness that she is no longer here on earth with us.

I'm looking at my picture folders for each month of this year. When I look at January I see a tiny baby-faced Logan. His hair still in ringlets because it is not yet thick enough to weigh-out the curl. I see a young Brenden - only 3 years old, the same age Logan is today. They both seem so much more mature.

Brenden and Logan's friendship has really blossomed this past year. They are the best of friends and really play well together. They have vivid imaginations and can instantly tranform themselves into pirates, knights, puppies, monsters, etc. I love seeing what creative scenarios they come up with. I feel like the gap between their ages is quickly closing and they are becoming more alike in so many ways. They are still very much their own child. Brenden continues to be our sensitive little brainiac. Logan continues to be wild and silly. He thinks as long as he can make you laugh he can do no wrong. I always say... Brenden is smart and Logan is clever. Brenden can learn anything in a flash, but Logan can figure things out and scheme like no other 3 year old can :) They are a good balance for each other.

This year has given me the opportunity to live closer to my family. I began working from home more frequently and finally made the decision (with the cooperation of my employer) to make the transition to work from home full time and relocate to West Virginia. None of my family lives in the town I grew up in anymore. I made the decision to move to the Charleston/Huntington area as its a nice sized town and is within a 2 hour drive of my mom and my brother. Our search for a home was sort of blind, in that it was really based on the internet. I wasn't familiar with any of the areas. I made a list of 3-4 homes and decided to come look at things. Our realtor told us she could show up to 6 so I aded a few of my 'maybe' options to the list. I was so glad I did. The houses I liked turned out to be not very great, and one of my 'maybe' homes turned out to be perfect. Its a great home in a great neighborhood. We have a large back yard for the boys to roam free. We are just minutes from the interstate and it turns out the exit we live off of is where the Mall is. We never have to travel more than 10 miles to get to anything we need it seems. I was a tiny bit worried that moving from NC to WV would be hard on me since I'd been there for so many years, but we absolutely love everything about where we moved. So far we've even been able to handle the cold weather and snow. Of course we made it all the way til late December before the temps dropped below 50's.

I suppose we often open each new year with everything in our lives we want to make better, but for me, today is a day of reflection. I have come to realize that its easy to focus on the obstacles God places before us and not the blessings. I have obstacles, but as I face the obstacles of life God rewards me with a good job, a good home, a good family... so many blessings. I have the most incredible children in the world and watching them grow has been the greatest joy of my life. There are so many out there without jobs at all and I am not only fortunate enough to have a job, but its a good job that has allowed me to relocate without having to find new employment. I hope that 2013 brings me as much joy as 2012. I look forward to all the new things that will happen in this next year. Brenden will start kindergarten which just seems impossible to believe.

And now for the resolutions... because they are important to have.
1.  A healthier me. I work from home now and its easy to just roll out of bed, sit at my desk all day and then finish work and do nothing for the rest of the day. I need to make a better effort to be more physically active and healthy.

2. A more positive attitude. It's so much easier to complain than to rejoice. I need to rejoice more :)  I have many things to be happy about. Life could be so much worse.

3. To learn more. I feel like I've hit an educational wall with my job so I want to really push myself to learn new things this year and grow my skills. One of the reasons I went into software development and support was to have a job that continues to challenge my mind. I have fallen into a repetitive mode in my job and don't feel like I'm feeding my mind anymore. I definitely want to do more.

4. To continue to grow my photography skills. I got to that 'i know enough to do what i need to do' level but I could learn more and I enjoy learning... and who knows... one day I may need a backup carreer :)

5. To spend more quality time with the kids. I do spend time with the kids but they play together so well its easy for me to just let them do their thing and I can do my thing. But I know one day they'll be independent teens locking themselves in their room and listening to music thats way too loud and playing whatever fad electronic device is out at that time. I want them to grow up feeling like their parents really are a part of their lives.


And to finish things up, it seems that blogger will finally let me upload some photos so I'll put a few 'best of 2012' pictures here.

 



The winds of change...

Life has taken over and my blog has taken the back seat.

Summer has been wonderul. We spent a week at the beach with good friends and with Sean's family. It was a lot of fun for everybody. The boys loved the ocean and the swimming pools. And for some crazy reason while we were on vacation Logan decided to turn 3! I can't believe my baby is 3?! We had a little party for him at the beach. He said he wanted "chocolate jelly beans" for his birthday. Not sure where that idea came from but we searched high and low and found our local candy store at the mall had chocolate pudding flavored jelly belly jelly beans. He was very pleased. I'm thinking we could have skipped the cake entirely and just shoved a candle into a bowl of jelly beans.

Our life has been total chaos lately. We made the decision to sell our house in NC and move to West Virginia. North Carolina is an amazing state, but I grew up in WV and decided thats where I want to raise my boys. I have many friends from high school and college up in that are, not to mention my family will be a whole lot closer to me. My job now allows me to work from home so my office doesn't have to be in NC anymore. Its a risk, should I ever lose my job, but I felt it was a risk worth taking.

We found a house in Ona, WV that we loved so we pulled the trigger and made our offer. We are scheduled to close next week. We're still trying to sell our existing house in NC but we've had a lot of showings so I think it will sell soon. People just want a crazy cheap deal right now and we can't afford to do that. So Sean will be daddy daycare until we sell our house in NC and I'll work out of our new home in WV. In the end it will all be worth it, but getting there is an ongoing headache! Inspections, appraisals, closing attorneys, turning off utilities, turning on utilities, etc. I'm sort of glad we're moving before we sell our own home because if we were dealing with a sale on top of everything else I think I would lose my mind. I do hope our house sells very soon after we move into the new house though :)

The boys are doing wonderful. Brenden is his usual sweet self. I've been very proud at what a great big brother he his. He'll often give in and let Logan have his own way because he doesn't like his brother to cry. He shares all of his treats he gets at school with Logan. I told him last night he was a good big brother and he said "yah I know" lol

Logan is now a 3 year old. He loves his big brother. They role play all the time. One of them is always some sort of baby animal and the other is the mommy or daddy. Or sometimes they are both mommy and daddy and a stuffed animal is their child. They can literally play for HOURS having some sort of invented adventures. They have awesome imaginations. I love to just listen to their little imaginary world.

I hope to get caught up on pictures soon. My Picassa account is out of space so i'm getting some resistance from blogger when I try to upload pictures. I'll figure it out !!

It's a beautiful day to be a mommy

It's a beautiful day to be a mommy ... but then again, thats every day :) .  When I had kids I totally thought I'd have 'babies' for longer than I did. Brenden is 4 going on 5, Logan is 3 going on 5. They are so independent and free-thinking. In some ways its great. I can send them to their play room and Sean and I can watch some olympics uninterrupted during the day. If Logan doesn't want to go to the bathroom by himself, Brenden will go with him and keep him company and tell him "good job" and "wash your hands!" Logan wants to imitate his big brother in as many ways as possible. One Sunday we sent Brenden to church for Vacation Bible School and Logan whined all day that he wanted Brenden to come  home or he wanted to go to church so he could see him.

Logan will be 3 next month. How? What? Why? Didn't he just turn 2? Sometimes I look at him and still see his little baby cheeks and am reminded of that little 1 year old that had his sassy in his mouth everywhere he went. I still have a bowl of pacifiers in my cabinet that I can't bring myself to throw away. Now he's getting so tall and lanky and developing more of a 'little boy' look than that chubby little toddler he used to be. His baby fat is disappearing quickly. The other night Brenden said he was hot so we told him he could sleep in his underwear if he wanted. We went down later to make sure he had a blanket because he'd probably feel a little cool with no pj's on and I looked over at Logan who managed to strip himself down to his underwear too.. HAS to be like big brother. He's got a great smile. His grin goes from ear to ear. He's showing some strong will lately. Its like his terrible two's hit at 3 instead. He's really testing his boundaries and defying authority. Unlike Brenden, Logan doesn't seem to care much if he's getting in trouble. It usually takes 2-3 time outs before it starts to sink in that he's misbehaving.

Brenden would stay my baby forever if I let him. He loves to be cuddled and taken care of. We have to push him to be more independent. It's funny how different Logan and Brenden are. We have to reel Logan in and we have to push Brenden out. He tends fight staying in bed a lot. I had to bribe him with a glow stick last night, which worked well actually. I told him if he came out of his room for any reason other than going potty he'd have to give me the glow stick back. Of course if B got one Logan had to get one too. I went to check on them later and found them both asleep, glow sticks in hand. Brenden likes to invent games, which is fun to watch. They have no rhyme or reason but he'll tell you whether you win/lose/tie. He'll say something like "what color do you like" I'll say "green" and he said "you guessed the right one! You win!!!" -- um... okay thanks B! They both love singing and dancing and with the olympics going on they have taken to doing more acrobatic stunts. I see lots of hand-stands, head-stands, and flips.

"You get what you get, and you dong have a fit"
Someone posted an article on Pinterest about ways to curb preschooler tantrums and the article contained this phrase. It took me a minute to realize that the point of the article was to use the exact phrase when your kids have a tantrum because they wanted the blue cup ... or whatever. There is something about a phrase that rhymes that seems to mean truth to a kid. Its like they think "hmmm, that phrase rhymes, so it must be true." So I tried it out and the first time I used it Brenden looked at me like "how dare you use a rhyme on me when I'm trying to have a fit". I continued to use it for the rest of the day and now if I see a fit emerging I just say "you get what you get" and either of them will finish with "and you don't have a fit" and suddenly the fit is derailed. Of course its not 100% effective. There are just some moments when your kid needs a good old fashioned cleansing melt down, in which case we just ask them to leave the room and come back when they are done having their melt-down. I don't expect them to bottle up all their negativity. Just want to teach them that people don't like hearing fits, so if you MUST have one you can leave the room and come back when you are done. This worked really well when B was in his 2's. I could come into his room and say are you all done with your fit and he'd look at me and say "no" and then continue. Eventually he'd surface from his room and say 'all done fit' lol. Ah... that seems like a lifetime ago when he was only 2.

Here are some recent photos of my little princes.

Logan practicing swimming

Brenden at Monkey Joes

Home-made sprinkler/trike wash using pvc pipe and a drill.

Pillow fort!

Mommy playing Peek-a-Boo with the camera

Brenden's VBS class performing at Church

Checking out the living room of the house in WV we are *hoping* to buy!

Typical silly Logan, in the "rolly-bag"

My 4 yr old doing his homework.. such a smarty pants!

Summer is halfway gone already?

Where has the summer gone? Although I'm ready to be done with the heat, I can't believe we're already halfway into the summer season. The boys have been doing great. We keep cool by going to our local parks splash pad and playing in the kiddie pool in the back yard. I love that the splash pad is so close and so cheap! Quick way to cool off without spending a ton of money.

We took the kids to Monkey Joe's a few weekends ago. I wasn't crazy about the place. B had a good time but poor Logan kept getting trampled by the big kids and would get stuck inside of the bounce houses just bawling and crying. Brenden owned the place and made best friends with every girl in the place lol.

We took the kids to see fireworks for the first time. Usually we don't go because they are way past their bedtime but decided to try it. They enjoyed the fireworks, but not as much as mommy and daddy. They were asking to go home and go to bed lol. However when they were going off Logan kept saying "look at the Booo- tiful fireworks mommy!"

We are in the process of trying to sell our home and relocate to the Charleston/Huntington area of Wv. We've found a house that we love but we've yet to sell our current home. Moving will allow us to be closer to family and friends. I'm blessed enough to have a job that lets me work from home full time so I can move without losing my job. Great news! We've had really good foot traffic on our current home so I imagine it won't be on the market too much longer. Its been tough keeping up with the cleaning. Working from home helps. Instead of spending the morning fixing myself up for work I can do a quick house clean before starting my day.

I haven't been taking as many pictures as usual lately. I unjured my hand a while back. I pulled a lumbercal (sp?) muscle in my hand and the weight of the camera in my hand was straining the injury and making it worse. I backed off the camera a bit and I noticed a lot of improvement. And frankly its been so hot my lens fogs up every time I step outside! I've got lots of iphone pictures I'll be sure to update with, and hope to get back to using my big camera soon. The boys grow too fast to set down the camera for  too long :)

Brenden's funny phrase for this post.... We record Wipeout for him. Its the only adult show we let them watch. Well we had two episodes DVR'd 1- battle of the military and 2- hotties vs nerds. So one day I put on the military wipeout and about 15 minutes into it he said "mommy, I don't want to watch this one, I want the one with the beautiful girls in it!" OH MY I am SO not ready for this yet lol!!!

Logan - gosh, logan says the funniest things all of the time its hard to just come up with something on the fly for him. Last night Sean had to work late and when he came home Logan said "daddy!!! I was SO worried about you" -- that cracked me up. I have no idea where he got htat phrase from, or that he even understands what being 'so worried' is.

Brenden has decided to move into Logan's bedroom. I thought it would be better for sleeping to keep them separated but B begs to sleep with logan every night so they share a room now. Logan's toddler bed was in the guest bedroom so now B just uses that bed and Logan is in the toddler bed. It doesn't work so well at nap time but for bedtime they seem to keep each other company and we have less resistance at bedtime. So we fully plan on putting their beds together once we move and let them share a room!