Snapshot in time. February 2012

"Time will never stand will and those moments that bring us such joy become memories in an instant."~Unknown

• You will be 6 years old in two months!! Where has the time gone?
• You've lost two teeth and your top two teeth are now wiggly. Yikes!
• You have grown into such a little man since starting Kindergarten. You say things sometimes and I feel like I'm talking to an adult. I often wonder where you get that wisdom from.
• Your dream is to currently be in the Army.
• You have zero interest in school and many times come home with an incomplete. We're struggling on getting you past kindergarten. Your teacher says you are too busy daydreaming and playing to get your work done.
• You are very compationate and care about others' feelings. 
• You love to snuggle, hug, and kiss. As long as no one else is looking.

• You just turned 2 in December.
• You are our dare devil.
• You show so much interest in animals. You can name them and tell us what sound they make.
• Your love for books is wonderful. You've got some of your favorites memorized.
• Temper! You have a temper. You will scream, kick, and throw yourself down if you don't get what you want.
• Your sweet tooth is just like your mommas. Luckily you love to brush your teeth or else I think we'd be in trouble.
• Your vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds. Everyday you are telling us something new.

This is it boys. Just a snapshot in time~The good, the bad, and the ugly. Each stage you two hit brings us more laughs, more heartaches, and much more sunshine to our simple little life. We love you

Easton is TWO!

Nine months of aches, pains, morning sickness, leg cramps, getting up 10 times in the middle of the night to pee. I thought it was never going to end but then on December 27th right in the middle of the day, it did.

A year of waking up all hours of the night. Rocking you when you cry at times, because frankly, I don't know what else to do. Wearing several outfits a day because you've either decided to spit up on me or poop everywhere. I never thought it would end.....But it did and it's going all too quickly.

You're TWO E....

And boy what a personality you have! You are our loud, outgoing one. You love music and dance at any chance you get! A talker....Oh boy, do you ever talk. Some words you say with such confidence and other times it's like you're speaking another language. That doesn't stop you though. You aren't the weird one, it's us obviously by the way you look at us when we don't understand what you're talking about.

We got you a bounce house for your birthday which is all too appropriate. If you aren't bouncing on it then you are jumping on beds, chairs, or cutting flips on our sofa. Have I mentioned that you are incredibly wild?? Fear, you know no fear.

You take after your mommy an awful lot with your fair skin and fiery temper. I believe the terrible twos hit a little early and your strong personality has started to shine. You also have a big sweet tooth like me. I'm so happy to have someone in the family to share my love of sweets with!

Your best friend is your big brother and what a great big brother he is! You have to do everything he does and he's such a good influence. At least, at this point he is. :)
Easton, you have made our family truly complete. Your sweet giggle lightens our hearts. Your adventuresome soul keeps us moving, and your quirky little ways bring a smile onto our faces daily. Happy 2nd Birthday kiddo! May this be the best year yet.

Doggy park at Cleveland Park

We had fun today. We've all been a little couped up in the house this weekend with Daddy under the weather. Finally today he's been feeling somewhat better and we decided to ask K what he wanted to do. His answer, "Doggy park!" Okay! Sounds good to me....Free, fun, and the weather is beautiful. We packed up a picnic, grabbed the dog, and headed downtown for a late morning of fun.
This beautiful fall weather just has everyone begging to go outside. It was perfect!
This photograph was taken by the up and coming photographer, K. :)

The flowers were BEAUTIFUL! They even found a little tunnel.

I didn't really get any good photos at the doggy park....With two little boys and a dog, things were a little crazy. Boodro was in his element though and we did have a lot of fun at the playground afterwards too. It's not very often that we have nothing planned and don't have to hurry you boys at the playground. Today we were able to just sit back, eat our lunch and play.

Two halves make a whole and you boys are our whole. <3

It's OCTOBER!!!!

Alright boys..... We're getting ready for Halloween.....I've made the wreath! :) The Halloween decorations will hopefully go up this weekend, and the costumes have been bought. My Warrior Ninja and lil' sock monkey are ready to be in full swing!! It should be a fun season.
I'm struggling a little on how to keep the two of you entertained. We normally hit up the apple orchard and pumpkin farm but I had no clue that between kindergarten and after school fun, you K, would already have made two trips there....I'm sure we'll come up with something! Let the good times roll!!

bath time is.....Uh, not always a fun time

Right now I deal with two different boys when it's time for a bath and/or shower. One LOVES to get into the bath but when it comes to washing of any kind he screams bloody murder. He simply wants to get into the tub to play with his cars and trucks and get out on his terms. My other one hates to take a shower and will make every excuse in the world to not get in but then once he is in I can not coerce him to get out for anything.
It can be exhausting each night.
I had seen an idea floating around on the web for a fun and entertaining bath time and had thought a little about it but then forgot about it until today. I was in my most favorite craft store picking things up for Christmas presents and I saw that they had a sale on glow sticks.  15 for $1.00! How could you go wrong!?
So this was our bath time....

I'm not sure I got all their dirty spots....And I'm not really sure I care. :) I was able to kill two birds with one stone and get them both "clean" at one time and there was zero crying involved!! After bath time was over they each collected their own glow sticks and now they are running around the house entertained by them. It was one of the best dollars I have spent in a while!

Take a stand against cancer!

So much is already going on this fall! It has been busy busy! Just today I've got apple butter in the crock pot simmering, wreaths a'wrappin, the kids finger painting some canvas' to hang on my wall, frames being painted by myself and all the ideas swirling in my head as how I want to transform my little computer corner. I've dedicated this year to being a homemade Christmas. Not for the kiddos but for friends and family. That pledge has kept me quite busy, to say the least.

The point of this whole post though was to help take my stand against cancer. Over at Brassy Apple Megan is collecting shoe photos that will all be donated to help raise funds for research that will go to standup2cancer.org. For those of you who know me then you know that this is a passion of mine. Anything I can do to aid in the research of cancer, I'm in....And what more perfect of a shot than my little boy sportin' Momma's favorite shoes. :)
 

Let The Feast Begin!!

I was reading another blog, as I often do, and I saw where this very creative momma was throwing her kids a back to school feast. I thought the idea was brilliant! Here it is K's first year in "real" school which means it's a perfect time to start a new tradition.
I immediately set the plan into action. Luckily I wasn't too busy at work and spent my lunch hours crafting crowns, shopping for goblets, and coming up with the menu.
I don't consider myself to be too creative and pondered what on earth to put on these crowns. I finally came up with the idea of using the meaning of their names. K's stands for ball of fire (which really couldn't be further from the truth), and E's means outdoorsy or river settlement. That was a tough one.

I also made the center piece using matching flowers that went so well with the goblets and plates.

and for K's little keepsake token I ordered the most beautiful stained glass star from a very talented couple. Not only was the star beautiful but it was so carefully wrapped. It was just perfect!! I'm so worried they will stop making these beautiful stars before all the years of school are up. I'm tempted to by several now, while I can. :)

The food was wonderful. We had a big taco bar, chips, dip, ice cream, and the most delicious cupcakes. Once dark fell, we continued the feast by playing with our glow in the dark King's sword.

Fun times were had by all. I can't wait to do it even bigger and better next year!

First Haircut

On July 30th we finally got the little dude's hair cut. I have been putting it off for as long as possible. I'm not sure why. I wasn't like this with K. I remember cutting his hair on his first birthday. We took him into the bathroom and took a pair of razors to his poor little head. Yikes, what a memory. Maybe since that experience went so poorly I've been putting this one on the back burner. Finally it was time though. His cute little curls were starting to straighten out and I had more than one person jokingly call it a mullet. That's it! We're off to the salon! :)
I think it turned out great and little E was such the trooper. He cried at first but then came around to the whole thing and I think by the end enjoyed it more than I would have ever imagined.
What a handsome little man you've become!

We love Summer!!

Sometime there is no time to edit a photo! It's far to good for that anyways. We've had such a great time in the 100 degree weather...just hanging out with family! I love it!!

Going...Going....Gone...

To my dear sweet boys,
I've been spending the past few days thinking back on our summer....The fun and exciting camping trips we've been on, the lazy days at the house, the chaos of getting all of us up and out the door in time to get Mommy & Daddy to work. I've watched you both grow so much.
E, you are just starting to become your own individual. You love to sit back and play with cars and trucks all by yourself yet you want to do everything with your older brother and your goal appears to be just like him. You are our cuddlier and in the mornings you'll take turns sitting with each of us, almost as if not to hurt any one's feelings. You were born to be outdoors and cry when we come inside. You've become quite the kisser and love to give good morning, good afternoon, good night, and all day kisses. I love to watch your little wheels turning and think you are growing up to be quite the ladies man...
K, you are getting to be one big boy! You have gone from being a little boy in my mind to a kid that is getting ready to start school! You love and want to be just like your Daddy. Your excitement for camping and trucks is almost too much for you to handle. I love watching you play by yourself when you think I'm not watching. The conversations that your cars and trucks have with each other are just so cute and grown up in their own innocent way. You have a sweet sweet soul and can't stand to hurt any one's feelings or to get in trouble. When you think you've done wrong you stick yourself in to time out and it always pulls at my heartstrings. You will be having a visitor, the tooth fairy, come by real soon and we can't wait!!
Both of you have made this the best summer ever for me! I love you both and can't wait to see what the fall has in store for us.
xoxo,
Mom

30 Day Photo Challenge~ Day 20 & 21

Day 20-Water....
E is getting to such a fun age! He's turning into a little boy instead of a baby. You can actually ask him questions like, "Are you ready for your bath?" or "Are you ready to go to bed?" and he'll take off running towards the bathtub or grab your hand and lead you to his room. He's really sweet and it's very exciting for me to watch him grow and learn. He absolutely loves his bath and when he's in it I make sure to get all the un-fun stuff out of the way, like the cleaning and washing of the hair, butt, and itty bitty toes, that way he can spend the rest of his time having some fun in the water!!

CAUTION: COMING INTO ENEMY LINES!!
Day 21~Macro

This is a picture of one of my most dreaded enemies that actually enter our garden. SQUASH BUGS! I don't have a huge problem with them, at the time....but the problem is, they can be incredibly hard to get rid of. If you're even attempting an organic garden and start becoming infested with these little fella's then you might as well give it up. So far so good-I've been able to swipe off all these nasty little eggs to keep the nymphs under control.

30 Day Photo Challenge~ Day 18 & 19

We've had a great weekend. I've seen the inside of my kitchen more this weekend than I have in a really long time. I now understand why women didn't work back in the day. I understand where the saying, "I've slaved over a hot stove all day!" came from. I have canned until I can't possibly can anymore. It's been great fun and I plan on writing a post and sharing some pictures just as soon as I get time.
In the meantime, I'm running behind on my photo challenge. I did manage to get my picture yesterday-I just didn't get a chance to post it. So here's to day 18 & 19. Eyes & Summertime.
These are my sweet baby E's eyes. I love this little man...Such a sweet sweet soul he has!

And our sunflowers...WOW! They are amazing. They have grown well over 9 ft tall...Now I'm just waiting until they actually bloom. This little guy (and I call him that because he is only upwards of 5 ft tall) looks as if he's going to bloom any day. The sunflowers remind me of hot...sun...summertime. I couldn't resist taking a picture of them.

Here is a picture showing the height of the flowers!!

Camping Trip #3....Myrtle Beach, SC

We just got back from a wonderful camping trip in Myrtle Beach. If you're at all familiar with Myrtle Beach then you know of the HUGE campground there, Ocean Lakes. It has everything under the sun to do for people of all ages. We went there for 4 nights and 5 days and stayed on the go the entire time! The days would pretty much consist of wake up, beach, lunch, pool, nap for the kiddos, beach-fishing, dinner, golf cart cruising, sleep...and then we'd wake up and do it all over again. We were all exhausted and running on fumes by the time we got home but wouldn't have it any other way. This was E's first trip to the ocean and I think at first he had mixed feelings about it but soon warmed up to the whole idea. K was WIDE open!! Not even a jelly fish sting stopped him. Once he started feeling better he grabbed hold of his boogie board and was right back out there~That's my boy!!
We indulged in tattoos....The spray on kind. :) We survived our first major storm in the camper...and did just fine. We cruised on golf carts....like all the kids, tweens, teens, and adults. We fished....and had most success with the bait traps, catching shrimp, crabs, eel, and little mudpuppies. We had a great family cook out the last night....wonderful seeing all our family. The only thing I regret was taking a break from the camera and just enjoying the company so I didn't get any photos of that. I did get plenty of photos of everything else. Here are just a few....okay, or maybe several.

Here is our little flamingo....trying to stick his head in the sand.

Playing in the sand. I love how our little toe head sticks out so much between the little brown berries.

Good Morning World!

Beach Baby being a Beach Bum...

Now this is a hotdog like no other!!

K's lucky day....He just so happened to stumble upon a pile of shark teeth sitting in the sand... ;)

We had a wonderful time. We are already planning our next trip there. As sad as we were to see the beach go, it's also nice to be home.