Visit with Santa

On Saturday, we visited Santa at Bass Pro.  The boys did much better this time, especially Evan, since the first time we visited Santa this year he wouldn't pay much attention to him let alone slow down long enough to sit with him for a good picture.   

Kyle only told Santa two gifts he wanted.  He told Santa that he didn't want any thing else because if he got too many toys -"Mama will make me clean the playroom!" :-)

What in the world am I going to do with these boys!?!?!

Who needs toys.....

 

 ....... when you have a laundry basket and a Daddy that will pull you all over the living room in it!! :-)

Still Here.....

Hello!  Sorry we have been MIA over the last few weeks.  Things have been really busy at my work and it seems like we do not have a free minute!
The boys are doing well.  Evan is getting SO big and thinks he can do anything Kyle does.  This is a picture I snapped on my phone on Saturday (sorry its blurry!). Kyle was coloring so Evan sat down with him to color. :-)  They are so sweet together.

Other Randomness....

We all are looking forward to Christmas and putting up the trees and decorations (well everyone except for Ben...he hates getting it all out!) Kyle wants a bigger tree in his room this year so I am looking around and trying to think of decorations for it.  This is Evan's second Christmas and I believe he will really be into it this year! 

Ben and I are trying to clean out our closet that we share in our bedroom.  Or I guess I should say, he pulled it all out and I am going through everything and trying to decide what needs to be tossed, given to goodwill, or put back in the closet.  I must admit the first few days of this project, I was beginning to think our house was going to be either condemned or be on the next episode of Hoarders! We are not done yet, but we are well on our way and making progress!

I've really been getting into couponing.  I am trying my best to get myself organized. Yes, I am "one of those" with the three ring binder full of coupons.  I have to say I love it! I have been trying my hand at this for a few months now, but on Saturday I went to a coupon class.  It was great!  I learned a lot and I really look forward to cutting our weekly household budget significantly.   

I know this is a very busy time of year, but I will do my best to post more often.  Hope everyone has a wonderful healthy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Evan's First Haircut!

To follow in tradition we started with Kyle, Evan had his first haircut at the Harmony Barber Shop at Walt Disney World.  He did pretty good and mainly watched Kyle who was getting his hair cut in the chair across from him.  

Side view of Evan. All his pretty pretty curls are gone. :-(

This is Ms. Penny with both boys.  The funny thing is...Ms. Penny has cut Kyle's hair in the past also.  Her picture with Kyle hangs on Kyle's bedroom wall. 

I will post more pictures from our trip soon, but don't my boys look so grown up!?!? :-)

Happy Birthday Stephen and Matthew!!

A few weekends ago, we went to Stephen and Matthew's 3rd birthday! The boys had a combo Thomas the Train/Spiderman theme. I love how Dana and Tim always let the boys have their own thing and do not make them do the same just because they are twins.

In the picture above Dana and Matthew are enjoying Spiderman cake!

Stephen with Dana and Tim are blowing out his Thomas the Train cake!

News Flash for all my family and friends that attended Evan's first birthday - he now LOVES birthday cake! He ate over half a piece with Mom feeding it to him. I guess from now on Dana will have to order all of Evan's birthday cakes since she has the right touch. :-)

The boys got to play in the playground area alot. Here is Kyle the monkey climbing to the highest point he could!

This is my new favorite picture of Evan playing peek a boo!

One year...

Today marks one year that I have been back at work since being on maternity leave. I know this seems like a weird date to remember, but its the first official day I became a working mom of two.

One year ago today....I took my baby boy to his first day at daycare. (Doesn't he look scared to death....like Mama what are you doing to me?!?)


Until this day came one year ago, I didn't think I could do it and possibly get out the door on time (well sort of on time). Now my daily routine consists of two boys to get up and dressed in the mornings. Two boys to feed breakfast to. Two boys to strap in the car, sing songs and tell funny stories to on our endless commute to school and work. Two boys and all their bags to take into daycare/school every single morning. And now my heart breaks in TWO pieces every morning when I leave them... I absolutely love my boys school, but I miss them terribly and can not wait until the time I can pick them up again each afternoon. However I always feel like our nights are too short and by the time we have dinner, bath time and just a few minutes of playtime, its already time for bed. Just to start the routine over the next day. But I guess that is what a working parent is all about - routines, schedules, and missing your children like crazy.

Today, one year later...I took this little "walking" ball of energy to daycare!


I can not believe how much he has grown in just one year....my baby is getting to be such a big boy!

Trying new things...

Tonight after the boys and I got home we ran outside for a few minutes to enjoy this unusual but wonderful Fall weather we are having. Over the weekend, Kyle and I cleaned up his tree house slide for Evan and tonight we decided to see how he liked it.

At first, Kyle stood in front and I helped him get in it. He couldn't climb the steps but that is okay. He will figure that one out in no time, I am sure!

So we got him sitting at the slide and you could just see on his face "So what am I suppose to do now?!?"

Then after much coaxing and cheering him on he started to slide...

As we were all clapping and cheering he knew he had done something good! :-)

Yeah, Evan! Once he got off the slide my sweet boy came straight for me and the camera!

My handsome boys

A few weeks back Ben had to go to a school for work. Of course I had a get a picture of all my boys going to school! :-)

Before Bed....

Kyle absolutely loves for he and his brother to dress alike....I am not sure why because I have never pushed it but he has always asked. So when Kyle found Lighting McQueen pajamas the other day and they also had Evan's size we got both of them a matching pair. The boys looked SO cute! So of course I tried to get a picture of them....

Well the first one didn't turn out so well... Evan is trying to escape!

Yes, take two got a little worse...Evan was REALLY trying to get off the couch.

So both boys got off the couch and finally take three....we got a good picture! Okay so I must tell the truth and this was really like take 32...but who's counting! :-)

Now I know why Evan was trying to get off the couch, he had a phone call to make!


Now that Evan is "off the phone" He had time to stop and smile for a picture!

Evan's first birthday

Where in the world did this year go?!?! I absolutely can not believe Evan is one year old! He has grown up so fast right before our eyes that it is almost unbelievable at how much he is doing daily.

A couple of weekends ago we had Evan's first birthday party. I am so glad that all our family could attend and celebrate with him. We were able to get one family picture before everyone arrived.

Since we met at a restaurant, everyone was able to order exactly what they wanted off of the menu. I have to admit I was very nervous about having a party this way but it really worked out. We requested the private dining room so the children all got to run round and play. It was nice.

After dinner, and when it was time to cut the cake, I was able to get the first birthday hat on Evan. This is the only picture we have of him in his hat, because he kept it on for about 2.5 seconds.

And as you can tell, Evan definitely, positively does not like cake or any part of the whole cake smashing process! Which I guess this is a good thing that he doesn't like cake or icing. However I must admit....he DEFINTELY did not take this trait after me!! :-)

Another first....

Tonight was Evan's first time using a big boy tooth brush. I don't know why we haven't started sooner, but it was one of those things that hit me earlier today. I was talking about how fast he is growing up and when I said "He has 12 teeth" this light bulb went off in my head that said "you need to be brushing his teeth!" So after work tonight we ran to Wal-Mart and I let Kyle pick out Evan's first tooth brush. I promise you it took almost 15 minutes to find just the perfect Thomas the Train toothbrush and tooth paste. After bath time tonight we opened the new toothbrush and tried it out.

At first he let me brush his teeth for about 20 seconds and then I would get this face! I would have to pry his mouth back open for another 15 to 20 seconds of brushing. I can't tell you how many times we went back and forth on this one.

Yeah! Evan got to hold the tooth brush! (I really should have started this way...) He was VERY happy holding it! :-)

Then once Kyle came in to brush his teeth Evan thought it was great. He watched Kyle and tried to do just what his big brother was doing.

I have two little boys with very clean pretty smiles tonight!

Week 2: Swimming Lesson Continues

Kyle continued to excel beyond belief during his second week of swim lessons. By the end, Kyle was swimming across the pool!

I love being able to go see him in action during the last Saturday lesson! However, I don't know if he was so happy with me snapping pictures the whole time. ;-)

Evan stayed awake for this lesson and was a COMPLETE ham the entire time. He also perfected his hand eye coordination while playing with GaGa on one side of the pool by picking up tiny ants on the concrete.

Now for Kyle's favorite part of the day....and my scariest....THE DIVING BOARD! (insert dunn dunn dunn scary music here!)

And for the jump...

He did SO good! He got to jump off the diving board twice and both times he did great! I have to admit I did pretty good and stayed really calm (well for the most part!) I am so glad that he got the opportunity to participate in these swim lessons at school, go with all his friends and most importantly learn some really great fundamentals and swim techniques that he will use the rest of his life.

My Sweet Boys

My new favorite picture of my boys....Evan fell asleep on his big brother. Kyle laid so still and held him. I think they would have slept like that all night if we would have let them. :-)

Swimming Lessons

A few weeks back, Kyle attended his first week of swimming lessons. He LOVED it! I am so surprised and happy that he took to the water as well as he did. On the Saturday after his week long swimming lessons I got to go and see what all he was learning. I will admit I thought I would need to be sedated just to have all those kids in the water at one time but it really was not bad at all. They had so many instructors in the water watching the kids that it made me feel comfortable the entire time.
This is Kyle floating on his back...he thinks he is a BIG boy doing this! :-)

Now floating on his tummy.

I love this mid air shot! He is jumping off the side of the pool.

One of his favorite things to do in the water is when they throw something in the pool and he goes under to find it.

This is the tiny blue frog he found!

He is in swimming lessons again this week and he came home last night telling me he can swim from one teacher to the other. I am SO proud of my big boy! I can't wait to go this Saturday to see what he has learned in week two!

Words...

Before Evan woke up on Wednesday morning Kyle was awake in our room talking with Ben and I. The conversation was centered around when Kyle was a baby and some of the neat things he did.
The conversation then turned to words Evan can say. We were all naming off his words that he says which consists of bye bye, hey, go, mama, dada, bubba, and gaga.

About this time Evan woke up so we all jumped up to say good morning and to start our day. This word conversation was long forgotten....until we were on our way to school.

Kyle said "Mama, I know another word Evan can say."

I say "What is it baby?"

Kyle says "DELICIOUS" and busts out laughing!

So if anyone hears my 10 month old say delicious please let me know cause I defintely want to hear this one!

Staycation 2011

Last week was our annual "staycation" week. This is the week that the boys school is closed and I take vacation to stay home with them.

The first year Kyle was in school and we came up to this week, we made the decision to stay at home and do fun things locally. We have been doing it every year since and I am SO glad we started this tradition.... It is wonderful to go do fun, exciting and different things everyday but then sleep in my own bed at night. And the best part....I don't have to pack for an over night visit! :-)

This year proved to be just as fun, if not better than all the past years! I will try to post as many pictures as possible from each of our activities. I will warn you...I did take a A LOT of pictures. :-)

Happy Father's Day

On Sunday, we didn't really get to have a fun filled day with Ben since he had to work but we did get a few minutes Sunday morning for the boys to give him cards and the presents they made for him.

Kyle was SOOOO proud of making his Daddy a hat for Father's Day. Kyle drew pictures all over it. I think on the front of it is a picture of Kyle and Ben and then on the top he drew a strawberry and a tree.

Ben with both of his boys!

Saturday Fun

Saturday morning the boys and I got outside to play. We decided to go out front to play with chalk and Kyle wanted to ride his bike.

Evan sat in his zebra and watch, squealed and cheered Kyle on with every lap he made on the the driveway. One of my favorite things is hearing Evan clap and say "yea, yea, yea!" It is the cutest thing ever!

Once Kyle got off his bike he started drawing. I think Evan liked his helmet!

Sweet boy!

Kyle and I drew turtles, sharks, suns, a hopscotch squares, and anything else we could think of! We had so much fun but before I realized it we got SO hot!

I am looking forward to getting outside with the boys again this weekend. Maybe it will be a little cooler?!?! Nah, its summer in south GA.... :-)