Recap

Ready - Set - Photo! Here's a pictorial mini recap of us...enjoy. 

It's winter...winter means snow...snow with kids means playing outside....they love it:) I'm not a huge cold weather fan so I'm the mom out there with 20 layers on and waddling around! Hey - at least I'm out there!

So, we've established it's winter already. We obviously need hats in the winter. My boys like to pick out yarn and then I make them hats! It warms my heart to see their excitement when they are complete...it's the little things right? 

In other news - this baby is CrAzY! Always into something and making us laugh (or pull our hairs out...totally dependent on my mood) 

Good thing he's so stinkin' cute - cause he's always into mischief! 

My smiley baby...he's a charmer and he knows it! 

We're homeschooling E and J - E in the big Kindergarten and J is rocking preschool. I looked the other day and we're already over halfway done! How did that happen? Not to sure...I feel like I blinked in September and now it's almost February. I'm pleased to say we've stayed on track with our curriculum and are actually AHEAD of schedule! Woot. Translation: Summer Break will be visiting early this year - total score. 

My big boys are rockstars with school - both are super smart (I'm sure I'm biased but what mom isn't...) E is reading well and excelling in math! J has his letters mastered and conquering all the other fun preschool concepts! Oh academia how I love thee....for reals. :) 

Speaking of my students - Mr. J turned the BIG FOUR over Christmas break! He's my Christmas baby (12/27) and I always strive to make his birthday extra special since it's packed right in with all the Holiday ho-ha's. He loved his special cake with his fave berries on top! 

SEVEN years ago right now...I was probably freaking out about some tiny details for my soon-to-be wedding! I've been married to this stud for SEVEN years this Monday - when planning our wedding and looking at dates I discovered the perfect date...02-04-06. Inner math geek (who am I kidding - OUTer math geek) was so stoked for this date! Easy to remember, all even numbers, blah blah blah. 

Aren't we cute? Awwhh. 

My hair is long and I dip dyed my tips purple and loved it -- sadly this was like 2 months ago so I have since trimmed off almost all of it....translation: I better go get some more dye and do it again. Obviously. I've taken on the hobby (or rather necessity) of trimming my bangs and hairs...I've even tackled layers and they weren't horrible! I won't claim they're good but I'm totally cool with non-horrible. HA! It's a way I can help the budget - plus I feel so empowered with those sheers...

So, there's a mini-recap. Have fun? I did. 

In other news: I've had 3 people tell me that my last post (menu plans) actually helped them! Hooray - it wasn't a total waste of time! Stay tuned for this weeks menu plans...that reminds me I better go start dinner for tonight. 

a few pics...

here are those promised pics I told you about - granted most of them are horrible quality camera pics but come on...can't be too picky!

Remember that race I told you about? Well, here's our post-race pic! We were at the start line (with the over 8,000 other runners!) and realized we didn't take a pre-race pic...oops. So you get the sweaty, endorphins, post-race look:) After 7k we were all still smiling and wanted to do it again!

It was such a blast! We had fun wearing lots of green and glitter - and ran past two Irish bands that cheered us on with great music! Definitely on my to-do list for next year again.

I've recently discovered Pinterest. Love. It is such a wealth of information and ideas! The other night we made donuts and donut holes. Recipe courtesy of Pinterest:)

And a post can't be complete without an adorable shot of my littlest man. This was from a month ago but you get the idea of the cuteness that is happening with him...

Six months really?

Happy St. Patrick's day!!!

My baby is SIX months today! Oy. Time is flying...I feel like a broken record saying that so much but it's oh so true.

Like how I haven't blogged in like two months? Yeah I'm cool like that. I seem to remember when Judah was around 4-6 monthish not blogging much either:)

I'm going to try and blog more. Write down all those cute things my boys do and I want to remember...hold me to that k? K. Deal.

So, I've been meaning to document Judah's and Isaac's last doctors visit stats - here they are for your reading pleasure.

Judah (from his three yr check)

Height - 2'11.25" (3.97%)

Weight-28 lb (17.52%)

Isaac (from his FOUR month appt...he's now six months!)

Height-1'11.5" (4.97%)

Weight-12 lb 1 oz (3.77%)

HC - 40.6 cm (10.67%)

I need to set mr. Isaac's six month appointment soon, I'm excited to see how much he's grown in the past two months!

I want to show you how cute my kids are but I'm having issues adding them...hopefully we can create some picture-posts for ya soon.

In other news I ran my first 7k this morning! It was so fun - I set a goal for myself to run at a pace of 10 min/mile and I beat it! I ran at a 9.56min/mile (I am fully aware that it's only a 4 sec difference but it was still FASTER than my goal so I'm claiming it!)

Hopefully I can find more time to update this and record all the cute things (and boring stats) from my family!

Judah's 3!

My dear Judah is THREE years old! Yesterday was his birthday - I can still clearly remember the day he was born and the time that followed...my little man was born 4 weeks early and spent 9 days in NICU. It's hard to believe that was THREE years ago!

Since his birthday is right after Christmas (the 27th sneaks up fast) we tend to keep his actual birthday low-key and spread out his celebrations after Christmas. He has a birthday party this Sunday and another one next Saturday. Lucky kid - he gets four weekends with presents (two for Christmas and two for his birthday!)

On Monday (day after Christmas, day before his birthday) Joe and I went shopping for his present. A few weeks ago Ethan made a pop-up book for Judah and had it wrapped and hidden under the table - he was so excited to give it to him!

Here's Ethan proudly showing Judah his gift - I wished I would've thought to record their interactions; it was ADORABLE.

Ethan: Judah, I made you a pop-up book!

Judah: Thank you Ethan!

Ethan: You're welcome.

Seriously.
Joe and I wrapped our gift in a Captain America bag - Judah loves the bag almost as much as the gift. Simple things right?
We got him a Green Lantern Jet and Action Figure - he LOVES it.
We also found a 'Golden Books' book about Super-Heros! Score! I think I've read it to him about 100 times so far.
After a relatively normal day we went out as a family to IHOP for a special birthday dinner! Yum! Judah was so excited and acted all big-boy while ordering his food. I love that IHOP puts their kids meal options in picture form on their kids coloring page - GENIUS. Why don't other places do that? It was so simple to have the kids look at the pictures and choose from that. The boys even had ice cream sundaes as a special birthday dessert:)

We had a wonderful birthday-day as a family!

Check out his 2nd birthday here

Check out his 1st birthday here

*I was reading through my older posts and in one of them I have 8 days in NICU and the other 9 days...when do you start counting...the day he was born or the next day? He was born Saturday and discharged the following Sunday (you count Saturday it's 9 days, don't count Saturday it's 8)

Snowless Christmas?

It appears that we may have a snowless Christmas this year (granted I can't recall the last time I watched the weather forecast...but there's no snow on the ground and Christmas is this weekend!)

Remember our HUGE snowstorm last year? I do. And for some reason this year I'm not loving the idea of that MUCH snow...maybe it's because I now have THREE kiddos to haul through it if I venture out. It's fun to play in but not so fun to drive in.

We had some snow a while ago (which obviously melted) and the boys had a ball in it. So, I guess for their sake maybe (just maybe) I'll wish for snow this winter....too bad it's inevitable! Here's some super cute pics of them enjoying the little bit of whiteness we've received this year...

Aren't those mini-snowmen adorable? Yep. I guess I'll embrace the silver lining of winter snow and think of all the cute snowmen and snow angels my kids will make. Way to go me!

We're getting ready for a fun-family-filled Christmas weekend; there will be lots of delicious food and fabulous company! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend:)

Loving

Judah loves to love on his baby brother! It's adorable...Judah takes his job of 'big brother' very seriously! He loves to make Isaac smile, give him his paci, tell him "it's ok buddy boy" and inform me when Isaac needs to eat!

Way to go Judah!

Monkey's

I have two monkey's on my hands....very creative little monkey's! The other night Ethan and Judah flipped over our bowl chair and re-purposed it as an 'exercise bar' -- they would hang on it and proclaim, "look at me! I'm exercising!" Little monkey loves to mimic big monkey...Judah could actually hold his weight up! Strong guy:)
Tag Team! My little crazies:) I love 'em to pieces!
Sadly, their 'exercise' time ended as a result of them arguing about who's turn it was....classic right? Hopefully next time they can play nice and take turns! What a fun skill to learn....:)

I'm always impressed with the creative things my big boys come up with!

Just Like Mama

My big boys love to imitate me; it's absolutely adorable! You can totally tell what they watch all day (ME) - Copying is a form of flattering right? something like that...

I made (ie: cut and tied long pieces of fabric together) WRAPS for my big boys. They see me 'wear' Isaac in my Moby and like to 'wear' their babies (Judah's Panda and Ethan's Bear)

Ethan will wear his Bear for hours at a time! It's too stinkin' cute.

I haven't gotten a picture of this yet - but Judah likes to nurse his Panda -- I've (tried to) explain that only mama's can nurse babies...I think he gets it:)

On another Judah note: we've been potty training on-and-off for a loooong time with him and it just wasn't sticking...well folks - IT STUCK! Hooray! We're on day FOUR of underwear all day and he's even doing his 'business' in the toilet (BM!) Hip Hip Hooray! I do a little happy dance every time I realize what is happening:) It's been a long road with him. Major humbling experience for me as a mom....Ethan literally trained HIMSELF at 2.5 years old. seriously. So, I figured all my kids would be potty pros at a young age - insert sweet mr. Judah:) He still got it before 3 though so that's good...his birthday is in 3 weeks! He is SOO proud of himself - he tells everyone that he's in underwear and that he goes 'bubbles' in the toilet - only a toddler could get away with that kind of talk right?

Well, my little babe Isaac is calling my name (waaaaa-waaaa)

Blog to ya later.....

my babies...

...look so alike! I love it:) Joe and I were browsing through old baby pics of our kids and commented how much Isaac looks like baby Judah!

Can you tell which is which? Probably not since I haven't posted many pictures of Isaac yet:) Top one is Judah and bottom is Isaac - you can definitely tell they're brothers! Now I need to find a baby pic of Ethan with his head facing that way....

My baby is doing wonderful; he had his 2 month check (already?!) and is a superstar baby!

Stats:

Height - 1' 9.25" (3.94%)

Weight - 9 lb 11 oz (10.21%) WOW! good eater I guess:)

Head Circumference - 38 cm (12.22%)

All our kids have big heads so that was no surprise...but 10th% for weight? Way to go Isaac! We make tiny kids *case and point: Judah's 18 month stats.... 0.78%? Judah's been moving up the percentile ladder though - he'll have his THREE year check (seriously?) soon and we'll what his new stats are!

Life is good. Busy. Tiring. Rewarding. Exhausting and energizing all at once. Totally worth it!

Recently

Recently...there has been lots of baby kissing....
....lots of brotherly love...
...and lots of family cuddles!
Off to feed my sweet baby:)

This and That

Wow I'm bad at keeping up on this thing! I think of wonderful ideas for posts and have ALL these adorable pictures to put up...but they're not on here. Instead of that here's a sampling of this-n-that of happenings around here!

*Isaac will be 8 (EIGHT!!?) weeks this Saturday! Wow. I know with each kid times seems to go faster but mr. Isaac is in hyper-speed! I'm making sure to take time to sit and stare at my baby - he sure is a cutie! Those dishes can wait:)

*Isaac is now smiling! We haven't gotten a picture of it yet - soon! I love the 'happy eyes' that accompany his smiles:)

*I am now a certified group fitness instructor! I went to a 3 day (came home at night) training last weekend and passed both my written exam and audition. I pumped for 3 weeks prior to make sure I had enough breast milk for Isaac and I had MORE than enough! Whew. I was worried about that. I brought my pump with as to keep my milk supply up (and keep me more comfortable!) - success! Isaac latched right on when I came home in the evening and we're back to our normal routine as if nothing changed:) score!

*It's starting to get cold. brrrrrr. I'm not a fan of winter or being cold; we went to Target today and I put the boys in their winter coats - I'm sooo not ready for this! I guess it makes me appreciate our wonderful Spring, Summer and Fall we get - silver lining? I'll call it that:)

*Isaac got weighed last week and he's already 8 lbs 12 oz! WOW! This kid likes to eat:) I don't know how I'm going to handle carrying the bucket seat this winter - my right arm is going to be stinkin' strong!

*Isaac still likes to party with me at night....aka: he doesn't like to sleep more than 2-3 hours at a time at night. It'll come with time....right? right. My other boys didn't sleep chunks at night for a few months (Ethan is was TEN months before he slept through the night....come on Isaac - show up your brother!) Thankfully when Isaac wakes at night it's to nurse then he's right back to sleep. Not too bad.

*The big boys are doing AWESOME adjusting the Isaac. It's almost like he's always been here:) We're getting our groove down for daily stuff (getting ready in the morning, going into stores, making dinner, etc) and the big boys are doing wonderfully:) They love it when Isaac is awake and makes little noises (not crying of course!)

*I have a TON of ADORABLE pictures I need to post. I've been using Joe's Mac and (sadly) don't know how to load my pictures on here...so I need Joe's help. Hopefully soon I'll get them on here and show you all how stinking cute my kiddos are!

Long and Short

I can't believe it's been over a week (ha..almost 2) since I posted last - hence my title "long and short"...

My days seem so long...they start early with Isaac (or rather go throughout the night!) and is a marathon with my active big boys and ends late with mr. Isaac....they seem so long! Then I stop and realize - it's FRIDAY ALREADY? Wasn't it JUST Friday? Yep. The weeks are flying by.

Long days. Short weeks. Lack of blog posts and updates. Oops.

So here's some updates in no particular order:

*Isaac is CUTE as ever. We're anxiously awaiting the first awake smile (we've seen plenty of sleepy gas smiles:)

*Isaac loves to nurse! We're still working on the love of sleeping:) He's had a handful of good nights (aka: 4 hr stretch of sleeping) but as soon as I brag about it he reverts to the good ole wake-every-two-hour deal. ick.

*Judah's working on potty training - we tried while I was pregnant but as my belly got bigger my motivation to 'train' him got smaller. Ah well. He's doing really well this time around! He's awesome at staying dry but hasn't mastered the BM part of it...at all. GROSS. It'll happen though!

*Judah's vocab is increasing everyday - I LOVE hearing all the things that float through a 2.5yo mind. I love listen in on Ethan and Judah chatting in their room...precious!

*Ethan is growing up too fast. His thought processes on things are super impressive! He loves to ask questions and learn new things. Our 'Preschool' is going well - we're working on letters, phonics, patterns, and whatever else Ethan shows interest in!

*Ethan informed us that when he grows up he's going to be an 'animal rescuer' but he won't rescue scary animals. He also informed us that this is going to happen when he's FIVE. So..in his brain FIVE = grown up. I guess that makes me ancient:)

I'm loving this crazy time with a preschooler, toddler and newborn! There are times when the days feel so LONG but then I remind myself how FAST the weeks/months are going and don't want to wish this time away...so I'm gonna embrace these long days and (try to) ENJOY them:)

Time

Time is flying - my baby is now 4 weeks old! Oy. It's 6:20pm as I type this and at 6:24pm precious Isaac was born! It feels like yesterday and it also feels like forever ago...crazy how that works!

My baby is four weeks old and I am very sick. Sick with a nasty head cold. boo. Clogged sinuses, scratchy throat, chills, ickiness. I had big plans to write up a sentimental 4 week post with recent pics of the babe but....aint gonna happen. I will show you some cute pics from a week ago!My three beautiful boys hanging out together! The big boys are loving little Isaac - they love to watch his random movements and exclaim "Isaac touched my nose!" - "Isaac touched my hand!" oh the little joys in life:) We went to an apple orchard last week for my moms birthday - it was a BEAUTIFUL day out! Like 80's in October with no humidity...pinch me. Of course we had to try for a decent family picture - cuz that's what you do when you're outside and it's nice out:)

Here's hoping that my body kicks this cold soon and that no one else catches it! Joe's had (what seems to be the same sickness) a few weeks ago so hopefully he's safe...and Isaac should be safe from my breastmilk...right? So, to try and keep two toddlers away from my germs and keep them washing their hands - I'll let you know how that goes:)

sleeping boy

I love peeking in on my kids when they sleep:) I always go in their room every night before I go to bed and just stare at them and smile....so precious.

For the past few months I've been having to wake Judah up from his nap so he doesn't sleep too late (and then have a hard time going to bed at night). Most days I go in...rub his back...start talking to him about the rest of the day...etc... Well, today I went in and just stood and stared at my not-so-baby boy snoozing away and was in awe of how OLD he looked!

His head on his little pillow....
Laying on his side with his legs crossed...WAY TOO CUTE! He was out cold - the room was dark so my camera flash was super BRIGHT - he didn't move an inch. I could stand and watch him sleep for hours:) After about 5 minutes of staring and taking pictures I did wake him up though...

Baby on the brain

My kids are starting to latch onto the idea that I have a REAL baby in me! It is adorable:) I'm sure the fact that I'm a lot rounder and that my roundness will kick them is helping...

I've been trying to remember some of the cute questions/comments that they've been asking me about their baby brother -- OF COURSE there's a TON where I say to myself "that is soooo funny! I need to write that down!" and then I don't. Fail. Here's a few that I do remember...

**I was walking in front of Ethan and he said to me:
Ethan: Mommy! The baby's sure is making your back bigger!
Me: Thanks bud:)

**Judah looking at my belly:
Judah: Mommy has baby in her tummy and my have belly in my tummy!
*gotta love the 2-yr old dialect!

**Ethan watching me take a drink of water on a VERY HOT day:
Ethan: Thanks mommy for giving the baby a drink of water - I think my baby brother was thirsty.

**It was down-pouring rain the other week and everyone had raincoats on except me (I had an umbrella)
Ethan: MOMMY! The baby doesn't have a raincoat! It's going to get all wet!

**Both Ethan and Judah are convinced that we should name the baby IRON MAN. Oh boy.

**Both boys are recently obsessed with pretending their stuffed animals are babies; they put the babies to sleep, feed them, calm them down, tell me to whisper and on and on!

I know there were other funny quotes they've said to me but of course I can't remember them...blame it on pregnancy brain? yep. That's what I'm going with:)

Ethan asked once how babies were made...oy. Come on buddy, you're only 4...give me a few years to come up with an eloquent answer! I kinda-sorta side-stepped it and said we'd talk more about it later - he hasn't brought it up since. whew. Daddy might have to tackle that one:)

All I know is that Ethan and Judah are both PUMPED for their baby brother to come!

4th of July

I'm a few days late for my 4th post but better late than never....right? right.

As of July 3rd we had no plans for the 4th. The next morning we changed that:) We invited over some family that didn't have plans either (win-win for everyone!) and we had a blast!

Ethan and I made a last minute food run to Cub and picked up some classic 4th food: hotdogs, buns, chips, watermelon, corn, etc...YUM! The joys of shopping on the 4th for the 4th is that everything was on SALE! :)My brother Jordan and my boys helping to get the corn ready - gotta love sweet corn!Joe and his brother Tom getting the grill ready - don't laugh at our little grill! I say: little house = little grill. Once we get a bigger house you better believe we'll be getting a bigger grill! I say all the grilled food tastes the same though regardless...A while after dinner we had popsicles; (I think) this was Judah's first popsicle on a stick and he was so CUTE to watch...

"It's so drippy mom!" Trying to catch the melting part:) Needless to say about half that popsicle landed in the grass! He's getting better at managing them now though - practice makes perfect!MMmmm watermelon! We ate SO much watermelon:)Me and my man:)My sister Myra stopped by a little later to join the fun too!We had the kiddie pool out for the kids (and me...) to play and cool off in; nothing says 4th of July like hot weather and water right?My baby belly:) The babe likes all the sun and food!We had lots of kids toys out (for the kids..) and of course the big boys had to play with them too! Love the enthusiasm Jordan:)

Tom brought over some little fireworks for the kids to enjoy (which turned out perfect since we didn't end up seeing the 'big' show) - the kids LOVED it! Lots of 'ooohhh' 'aaaahhh' "mommy look at that one!!!" He also brought sparklers to play with - the boys had a blast with those too! Ethan called his "fire power" :) Judah wasn't too sure what to do with his...just stare:)

The kids were up WAY past their bedtime and were having so much fun! I asked Ethan if he enjoyed his 4th of July and he gave me this: YYEEAAHHH!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday weekend!